Meet Jason

When I first met Jason he was a very frustrated little boy. He was completely non-verbal and had no way to effectively communicate with his family. He would lead his Mom to the room where he wanted something, but mom had to constantly guess what he wanted. Out of frustration, he would frequently scream, cry, head bang, bite or pinch his caregiver. Jason had been discharged from OT at school due to limited progress. Jason was able to attend to a task for approximately 30 to60 seconds at a time and did not initiate any interactions. In speech therapy Jason and I worked on requesting items with a low tech AT device giving one choice.

After many sessions, Jason was able to advance to two choices on his device and began answering very simple yes/no questions as long as reinforcements were delivered immediately following the correct response. Jason was highly motivated by shredding toilet paper, drinking from his sippy cup or pulling feathers apart. After a lot of hard work and practice, Jason was eventually ready for eight choices on his device. He was successfully requesting eight different items. Jason’s behavior had drastically improved and he was now able to consistently attend to a task/activity for up to 10-15 minutes before needing a break. Jason’s family needed a communication device of their own so that Jason would always have away to functionally communicate with his family in all environments.

I recommended Jason and his family to Chari-T2000 for assistance. He was approved and received his own 7-level Communication Builder. Since receiving his Communication Builder from Chari-T2000, Jason is now constantly communicating with his family with this device outside of therapy. He can ask for the snacks he wants and the activities he wants to do. His whole family encourages and supports Jason using this device. He is able to go and get his device when asked. His school district has recently decided to purchase one for him to use in the classroom after seeing his success with this device during a parent conference. It is exciting to reflect on how much progress Jason has made in speech therapy. As a result, Jason is a much happier little boy now!