How to Borrow a Speech Device in your State

My son Cooper received his speech device when he was four years old. At the time I was overwhelmed by it. Not only did I feel the emotional strains of it I felt like getting one was such a huge commitment. Would it work? Should we try it? Will he even use it? I just didn’t know. I didn’t know how much energy I should put into advocating for a device either. I’ve felt this same way with many assistive technology devices. I wanted to try before buying. I recently…

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Helping Nonverbal Kids to Communicate

My son is almost seven years old. He has autism. He was and is nonverbal. I like to mention that because some kiddos with autism speak at some point and lose their speech. I can’t imagine how hard that must be for parents. To hear their child speak one day and not the next must be gut wrenching. Our story is a bit different. My son has never spoke. He has never babbled. He has no approximations. He mostly screeches, screams and hums. I’ve never heard a word like sound…

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A Video Update from Cooper and Sawyer

Hi all! I haven’t done a video in a few days! Cooper has a lot to tell you! And it’s just as adorable as you can imagine. Because I know you are going to ask, Cooper’s speech device is an iPad loaded with proloquo2go. He’s had it for three years but only really started using it fluently in the last six months. You can also hear that Cooper is still very vocal. He loves communicating in his own way. We are always working on sounds and modeling in our house.…

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