Robin Hurd

Kids say the darndest things!!

Children around the world have a unique perspective on life. The same is true for children who use AAC. The parents on our AAC Parents google group have compiled some stories of our children who use AAC and the wonderful, wacky things they say. Our hope is that these tidbits will let others catch a glimpse of the possibilities that are locked inside our kids, which are released by giving them access to full communication. The ages and diagnoses of the children in the following tidbits are accurate, but names have been omitted.

Humor

A boy, age 11, with Cerebral Palsy, was home with his dad, who is unfamiliar with the workings of all of his assistive technology for computer access, while Mom had to travel. When Mom checked her e-mails, she found this message from her son: I need help. 911. He had also placed a frustrated emoticon after “help”, and a screaming one after “911”. Without help from anyone with computer knowledge, and in spite of the difficulties of using his Tracker for access, he managed to access his e-mail account and let Mom know how very much he needed her at home!

A boy, age 7, with Cerebral Palsy, was beginning to help program his own device. He helped add, ”See you later alligator”, “In a while, crocodile”, and then decided to add his own parting words, “Don’t poke your finger!” This refers to his favorite story, where sleeping beauty pokes her finger on the spinning wheel. He used his personal parting at school, and then laughed at his joke. He also used this parting as a reminder to adults not to get fingers caught in his foot braces.

Sibling interactions

A boy, age 4, with Cerebral Palsy, within the first few weeks of getting his AAC system, began to use it to call his older brother a “fat pig”, and then laugh uproariously!

A boy, age 7, with Cerebral Palsy, told his older brother to “bug off, ______!”

A boy, age 11, with Cerebral Palsy, told his brother as they got ready to play a video game, "Bring it on. It is time to kick butt."

A boy, age 4, with Cerebral Palsy, told his mom that he was “tired”. Mom asked if she should take him or his twin brother to bed first, and he pointed to his twin. Then mom told the twin she would rock him in the rocking chair first. All of a sudden the first boy said, “most tired” and pointed to himself!

Language and symbol use

A boy, age 13, with Autism, was sitting at the dinner table pointing vigorously to the picture for melon. Since the family almost never eats melon, they were rather confused. Then they looked at the picture and realized that it looked just like a mushroom, which was what he was trying to ask for.

A boy, age 7, with Cerebral Palsy, wanted to play a computer game called “grab it”. Since he was unable to say “grab” on his device, he used the word “rabbit” as a substitute for “grab it”.

A boy, age 7 with Cerebral Palsy, wanted to ask for chocolate chips. Not finding the word on his AAC system, he instead used “chocolate” and “potato chips” to get his point across.

Heartwarming

A girl, age 9, with Cerebral Palsy, on her first few trials of a communication system and Tracker access, found the word, “happy”. She then began to access “happy” over and over as she practiced and enjoyed learning her new way to communicate.

A boy, age 4, with cerebral Palsy, was having a rough session with the SLP. He was distracted and began to wander around in his power chair instead of working. When asked how he was feeling that day, he responded accurately. “Wild”, he said, and then proceeded to show with his body what he meant.

I hope you enjoyed this taste of what children who use AAC can communicate! Feel free to e-mail me with your comments or questions at parents@aacinstitute.org. Next month’s topic will be what parents around the world are doing to help their children become skilled at using their AAC systems. I will share some of the exciting things I learned about at the ISAAC (International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Conference this summer.