Frankie, age 14, has cerebral palsy. He is bright, highly motivated and has a great sense of humor. He is a freshman in his local high school in Monmouth County New Jersey. Not only is he fully included for all academics, but he has earned a place in his high school's Mentor Program and is taking honors level classes.

Frankie was the child for whom the Gateway Page Set originally was developed. He received the first version of Gateway in July 1997. At that point in time Frankie had a Dynavox2c, which he accessed with the Penny and Giles joystick. Prior to receiving Gateway, he used a manual board (which contained approximately 150 words) for routine conversation, and the DynaVox2c with a variety of topic pages for structured situations.

Within 5 months of receiving Gateway, Frankie had mastered approximately 80% of its single word vocabulary. He had learned the vocabulary contents and organization through a combination of direct teaching, modeling vocabulary usage in functional contexts, as well as his independent exploration of the device. Within seven months, his use of Gateway reflected impressive growth in his language performance. He demonstrated age appropriate expressive language performance as documented on the Test of Oral Language Development (TOLD-P3).

Throughout the course of his grade school education, Frankie used a DynaMyte with Gateway 75 to communicate in a variety of settings. He was able to independently take tests using the Gateway Test page. He actively participated in all academics. He used his device not only to generate written passages for schoolwork, but to participate in school plays, give class reports, and to make speeches both in school and at several AAC conferences.

Frankie continues to be an effective communicator and he loves to “talk”. He has truly matured and the depth and diversity of his conversation is extraordinary. He currently uses a DV4. His mode of access has changed from direct selection to scanning. He accesses his device using a single switch that is mounted on his headrest.

Upon receiving his DV4, Frankie achieved another Gateway milestone. He was the first person to use the new Scanning Gateway Pro. Frankie is an inspiration to anyone who meets him.

Updated: 11/05