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David Chapple
December 2008
December is at the heart of the holiday season, so I would like to share one of my fondest holiday memories with my family. You might be thinking what does this have to do with AAC? Well, for over half my life I didn’t have an AAC device; I wasn’t able to communicate well with family members outside of my immediate family. However, as you will read, I had communication breakdowns even with my parents, sister, and brother. In this column I am going to talk about growing up during the holidays without an effective way to communicate, versus being an adult with a communication device.
I have a brother, Ed, who is eight years older and a sister, Angie, who is five years older. So yes, I am the baby of the family. Of course, we had some sibling rivalry, but for the most part we did get along. When Christmas time was approaching, Angie usually helped me with my list to Santa>. Naturally, I didn’t know Santa was really my parents. We compiled the list by having me point to newspaper ads or commercials on TV. As you can imagine this was very effective, but I wasn’t too involved in family get-togethers.
At normal family holiday functions all of the cousins get together and do whatever when we are children. That was the case with my family but unfortunately I was left out because I was “different”. They really didn’t know how to react to me because I couldn’t talk. So I usually spent my time with the adults. However, I did have a cousin named Beth Ann who used to spend time with me. In fact it continued into adulthood. We used to do a lot together until she moved out of state a few years ago.
Earlier I said I was able to communicate relatively well with my immediate family before I had a communication device. However, that wasn’t the case all of the time. I would like to share a family story that has become infamous. One Christmas I got a blow up Mr. McGoo punching bag with a big red nose. I was playing with it upstairs and it was left there. About a week later I was downstairs and I wanted it. So I started to look upstairs and somebody finally asked if I wanted something upstairs and I said “yes.” Then I pointed to my dad and brother. They asked “Is there a man upstairs?” And I said “yes.” They said that there was nobody upstairs and everybody dismissed it. Well, I really wanted this thing so I kept looking upstairs. I think my dad asked if I was still worried about the man upstairs, and that there is nobody upstairs. Then I pointed to my nose and motioned big. My dad asked “is a man upstairs with a big nose?” I said, “yes” determinedly! Nobody knew what I was talking about and I was frustrated. As the evening went on the man upstairs was kind of forgotten, but all of the sudden my brother yelled “The Mr. McGoo doll!” I was so happy I started to cry. I finally got to play with it!
Since I got a communication device functions with my family and friends are totally different for me. I can’t forget the first Christmas after I got my first communication devices. I actually had conversations with my nephew; I think he was about seven at the time. We talked about things like video games, music, and what he hoped he would get for Christmas. It was a regular conversation between an uncle and his nephew. This was so special to me, because I always knew he wanted to talk to me… but he didn’t know how.
Unfortunately, like many families, as people get older they tend to grow apart. So it is with my family. Well, of course, I still see my parents, sister, and brother. However, I very rarely see my aunts, uncles, and cousins. This is unfortunate but most of them never really talked to me then. If they did get the chance now I’m sure they would highly enjoy it. We would find out things about each other we never knew.
On behalf of the AAC Institute, I would like to wish everybody Happy Holidays!
Your feedback is always valued. AACConsumerNet@aacinstitute.org.
