Kim received a Touch Talker in 1987 when she was five, but gave up in frustration after two years. Then in 1993 when she was 13 years old she got a Liberator followed by a Pathfinder in 2000 (408PF).

Without her Pathfinder, Kim would be sitting somewhere in the corner angry and withdrawn. She has worked very hard to overcome her multiple disabilities and the AAC devices have been an enormous part of that.

Kim’s first word when she was five years old was “McDonalds.” We programmed her Touch Talker with that as a single-hit word. We were so excited that we jumped into the car and rushed off to McDonalds in the middle of the day to get a hamburger! But after two years she gave up in frustration. We sent her to a deaf school where she learned sign language. Then, when she was thirteen we tried again with a Liberator, which again sat on the shelf for several years. She mainly taught herself how to use it by working for hours with small notebooks (that her mom, Jill Miller, had created) in front of the television typing and learning the key combinations for Unity®.

Kim also attended an AAC camp for four summers where she learned confidence in the use of her device. Another key component was a daily class in school called “Pathfinder Training Class.” She would meet with an aide once a week and with a speech therapist who laid out a program based on her IEP goals based on what the aide had observed. 

Kim learned Unity and slowly and painfully how to construct a sentence.  Now her proficiency is amazing and her patience paid off. She effortlessly switches between Unity, the touch screen, and Word Prediction to form her sentences. Kim’s speed is amazing. I have never seen anyone faster. She graduated from high school three years ago and holds an almost full time job walking dogs at a local kennel.

As Kim grew in her proficiency, other AAC users, especially at our AAC camp, would gather around when Kim would speak to just listen to her or talk with her. They were in awe. They had never seen anyone as proficient as Kim on an AAC device. They all wanted to know how she got to be so good. I would tell them about the three years that we just let the Liberator sit there on the shelf and how gradually Kim’s determination (plus a little prayer and planning!) enabled Kim to speak. She was the “queen of the camp” when it came to proficiency.

We don’t know what Kim’s IQ is, nor do we care. For all we know it could be normal. But over the years psychologists have consistently tested Kim’s IQ as mild to moderate retarded. Through sheer guts and God’s grace she has learned how to speak fluently with an electronic voice. I know of no one who was considered to be so low to turn out to be so normal. Every good AAC user that we’ve seen…except for Kim…did not have Kim’s cognitive struggles. It would not have been possible without her Liberator and Pathfinder.

Just last week Kim was traveling to Disney World in Florida with a friend. While her Pathfinder was being scanned at airport security, a Homeland Security employee asked Kim's friend what the Pathfinder was. The friend told her that it is a speech computer because Kim can't talk. As soon as the device came through the scanner, Kim turned it on while it was still on the conveyer belt and said, “I can too talk.”

Submitted by Kim’s dad, Paul Miller

NOTE: Kim was previously highlighted as a Profile of Success in September 2002.