User Profiles | Gateway to Language and Learning©

Elise 75

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:52:10 -0400

Elise has a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Throughout the course of her educational program she has attended a local special education school. Elise has an engaging smile and she is a very hard worker. She controls her wheelchair and her DynaVox using switches mounted in a head array. Thanks to her mom, who consistently “bumped up” her scanning speed each time she reached a high rate of accuracy, Elise is one of the fastest and most accurate scanners you could ever meet.

Elise has been using AAC for many years. She had initially used a DynaVox 2c with a set of topic pages. Many buttons contained full sentences. She used her device to participate in academics and to communicate as home. Shortly after getting her DynaVox 3100, her communication page set contained both her familiar topic pages and a link to the Gateway pages. In 2002, therapy Elise demonstrated a surge in her expressive language development. The process of combining words to make sentences seemed to have clicked with her. Initially sentences were 3-4 word messages, without any grammatical morphemes. Elise also began using the spelling page both for her spelling words and on her own, attempting to spell words she couldn't find in Gateway.

To help increase the efficiency of her communication, Elise moved up to Gateway 75. With more of the most frequently used words on the MAIN page, she could efficiently make sentences less frequent navigation to other page links. The availability of morphemes has enabled Elise to continue her gains in expressive language. She is now using the present progressive verb tense, past tense and includes articles, prepositions along with adjectives and adverbs in her spontaneous sentences.

Elsie has come a long way in her communication performance. She now has the ability to say what she wants to say, and does so to adults and is improving her ability to communicate with her peers.

Michael 75

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:46:02 -0400

Michael has a diagnosis of Glutaric Acidemia Type 1. He is a teenager and included in a mainstreamed educational program. He is a competent communicator and excels in all academic areas. His receptive and expressive language skills are above his age-level.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.

He has been using his DynaVox for close to since he was approximately 7 years old. Michael presently uses Scanning Gateway Pro. He composes his messages using a combination of Gateway's single word vocabulary and spelling with character and word prediction. there isn't anything Michael can't say.

For a scanner Michael's access in amazingly fast, however, compaired to his able-bodied speaking peers communicating in social situations remains challenging. Michael had acheived age-appropriate syntactical long before the 3rd grade. Since then his performance, therapeutic efforts have focused both on improving his narrative writing skills and his pragmatic performance.

Taylor 60

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:45:56 -0400

Taylor has a diagnosis of cerebral palsy and is severely speech impaired. As a young child she had a great imagination and an advanced expressive vocabulary. At 6 1/2 years of age she communicated using a DV4 with Gateway 60 in combination with her speech.

Since she was 3 years of age, Taylor has been using an aided communication system. Her first boards were simple and contained less than 32 picture symbols. By the age of 4 she had a manual communication board that had over 100 picture symbols arranged in a Fitzgerald Key format. She used this board to express her needs and wants and to engage in structured play activities. Her messages typically contained 3-4 words. She also had a TechSpeak communication device that she used to communicate within her classroom.

In speech therapy, Taylor engaged in numerous play activities directed towards improving her expressive language performance. When she was 5, she also began using the DynaVox in therapy with a focus on sorting out her most efficient means of access. Initially she was unable to direct select on the touch screen without numerous miss hits. Gradually her accuracy improved and she acquired her own device. Her initial setup was Gateway 40 with a keyguard.

Taylor made rapid progress in both access and in her expressive language development. She began forming sentences using present progressive verb tense, past tense, prepositions along with a variety of adjectives and adverbs. She no longer needed a keyguard and could select from a field of 60 symbols. Taylor moved up to the Gateway 60 page set.

Taylor is an effective communicator. Familiar listeners can understand her speech. Her spoken sentences are well-formed. In addition to using Gateway 60 for spoken communication, Taylor has begun using her device for written language activities. This is not only very motivating for her, but it is helping her improve her syntactical skills and compete with her peers as they too learn to write in their Journals. By the age of 6, Taylor had become an effective communicator.

Niki

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:45:30 -0400

Niki has a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Niki came to the United States with her family, when she was 3 years old. Russian is her native language. Gaining communicative competence in a second language is an achievement for a child who can speak, but it is an incredible feat for a child dependent upon AAC.

Niki's introduction to AAC was through a picture communication board designed in a Fitzgerald Key format. Her first AAC device was a DigiVox, which she received at age 4. She used the DigiVox to enhance her participation in the classroom. A majority of her early language intervention activities were mediated through her manual boards. These boards increased in complexity as her syntactical skills progressed.

At age 6, Niki received an age appropriate score on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a test of receptive vocabulary. In speech therapy she was learning to form the past tense of regular and irregular verbs and to coordinate sentences. She received a DynaVox2c and began using Gateway 54 to enhance her language and learning performance.

One year later, at age 7, her scores for both receptive vocabulary and language comprehension exceeded her chronological age. Niki was a competent communicator! Three years later she received a DynaVox 3100 and progressed to Gateway 75. As a competent speller, she complemented her use of Gateway's single word vocabulary by spelling and using word prediction.

Niki's communicative competence enabled her to demonstrate her mastery of required educational competencies. Throughout grade school, Niki has consistently been named to the Honor Roll.

In the 2004 Camp Chatterbox program, in her role as a candidate in the M.O.D.E.L. Political Party, Niki was presented with the challenge of defining some of the characteristics of a successful person. Her closing is an accurate reflection of her performance. “Hello, Ola, Priviet! My name is Niki. I am learned and intelligent in school and in everything I do. I know three languages - English, Spanish and Russian. I am successful in life.”

Frank

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:45:24 -0400

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. His mode of access has changed from direct selection to scanning however, direct selction is his preference.

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. Frankie's major lefetime milestone is that he attends college and has even been named to the Dean's List.