Down Syndrome, PDA's, and Assisted Communication
An article in the NY Times, Insurers Fight Speech-Impairment Remedy, discusses how people with a variety of disabilities are using new personal digital assistants or PDA's, such as the IPhone and Blackberry, to communicate.
I know that personal computers (PC's) are often used in assisted communication, and even as small as laptops are now, they are still bulky and cumbersome to move around. While the focus of the article is on how insurers are reluctant to pay for new, non-researched devices, I was intrigued by the use of IPhones and other PDA's.
Being a tech aficionado, and having a five year old who can use my IPhone almost as well as I can, it seems to me that these small, user friendly, relatively inexpensive, personal digital assistants would be perfect for certain assisted communication situations. There is also the "cool factor" as PDA's are popular and trendy, and don't scream "assisted communication device."
Does your child have communication issues? Would you consider using one of these devices?
Christina is seven with significant speech delays. We just introduced a communication device to help her move beyond single words to make requests. For example, she would say “movie” and now she can press a button with a drawing of a child holding a video and a recording of a child says “I want to see a movie”. We are using it at home and at school, encouraging her to repeat the sentence.
She loves it!