Yesterday Sara was visited by her speech therapist and a representative from a company that makes speech devices with varying inputs. Well, Sara took to the device like a duck to water. She easily controlled the machine and was building words and sentences in a few minutes. The speech therapist commented to me today that Sara obviously has been working on the skills needed for this step.
Well, of course she has... She hears and sees everything that goes on around her and during her first evaluation they said out loud what she wasn't able to do and that she wasn't ready. That's enough for Sara to hear... That initial evaluation was a month ago and this time she was ready for it.
The Speech Therapist checked and Sara qualifies for total reimbursement for a dedicated device. We can purchase a license key that would allow the unit to be upgraded to a standard device, allowing her to be able to chat online, email, browse the internet, run other applications, and even make private phone calls from her unit. (Private meaning that she could initiate them herself, and listen, and respond with inputs that would be synthesized and played for the caller -without anyone having to help her or monitor her call).
She is working on the authorization with Dr. Neurology and then it will take a couple of weeks for the device to be received. Sara had her choice of colors...and chose pink...like her DS and her iPod. Silly girl...even now... :)
I joked with her and her brother that once she gets a device she'll never shut up...I'll have to take her batteries out to get any peace around the house... That got a big laugh out of her. I guess I should tell Michael not to hack his sisters voice... :)~
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Actually, I think it would be cool if we could hack the voice to get different cooler voices. Like Glados from Portal. Or the computer voice from just about any scifi movie.
ReplyDeleteThat's just too cool for words. Also, I second the GLaDOS voice.
ReplyDeleteSara talking? You'd better get two machines now because I'm sure she'll wear out the first one in short order. I remember this story about Sara and one of her instructors at Tech High when she was a sophomore .. .. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI hope it works out -- I can't wait to hear.
JI
This is the very best news so far! Sara will be able to post her own entries to this blog - now won't that be an upgrade (no offense intended to Kristina, et al, who have done such an awesome job keeping us posted - but it will be SO COOL to be able to communicate directly with Sara!
ReplyDeleteKristina, you are an A+ Mama Bear advocate - You Rock! Things are certainly moving in the right direction at last.
-Leslie (Tom Hansen's Mom)