Michael has a diagnosis of Glutaric Acidemia Type 1. He is almost 9 years old. He uses a powered wheelchair for mobility and effectively “zips” around, getting himself wherever he needs or wants to be. Michael has an engaging personality, a great sense of humor and an irresistible smile.

Michael is bright and attends a regular school within his hometown in New Jersey. He is a competent communicator and excels in all academic areas. His receptive and expressive language skills are above his age-level.

He has been using his DynaVox for close to 2-years. Michael presently uses Gateway 75 with zoom keys active. He uses direct selection as his preferred means of accessing his system. He composes his messages using a combination of Gateway's single word vocabulary and spelling with word prediction.

While his access is slow and somewhat labored, his messages reflect his high level of intelligence and his amazing wit. He uses his DynaVox to spontaneously initiate interaction with both adults and his peers.

Because of his age-appropriate syntactical and pragmatic performance, therapeutic efforts to improve his language competence are not required. He does need to master more of Gateway's single word vocabulary, reducing his dependency on spelling as it slows his rate of message generation. Intervention is also directed to pursuing an improved mode of access. Gains in these areas will further enhance his social and educational success.

Updated: 11/05