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Jessie Jackson: A Very Busy Communicative Teenager

PRC Profile of Success   
Jessica Jackson

Jessie Jackson is just your everyday active 17 year old. She enjoys horses, music and watching romantic comedies. She is, however, very different in how she communicates her wants, needs, and dreams. She uses a Vantage (by PRC) and is hopefully upgrading to a purple Vantage Lite soon.

She rides horses with a local program for children and adults with special need, called Blazing Saddles. The name of her favorite horse is Dude.

She loves all types of music but her favorites are Country (Garth Brooks) and Blues (Terry Garland). And her favorite movies are “While You Were Sleeping” and “50 First Dates.”

She is a member of NCACA and ISAAC and enjoys attending conferences with her parents including the PEC where she got to meet Barry Romich.

For AAC Awareness Month at her school, Jessica donated the book Schuyler’s Monster to her school library.

Jessie has an unknown disorder that has slowly stolen her speech, affected her balance, mobility and cognitive abilities. She had to get a walker during her sophomore year to continue to be mobile so we got her the coolest dark pink one with glitter we could find. Her dad also designed a tray for the walker to provide Jessie with access to her Vantage throughout the day. “How to” instructions for making a tray for a walker. 

 As Jessica’s parents (David and Merlie Jackson) we will be the first ones to tell you that Jessie is far smarter than the tests may show and she “gets” far more than she is able to let everyone know. She is learning more and more every day and we are very pleased with her progress. Learning to use an AAC device has not been an overnight process for Jessie, but then again learning to speak is not an overnight process either for anyone. It is, in fact, an ongoing learning process. Her road to AAC has been a very rocky one and her local school system was not supportive of Jessie and her device in the beginning (she started with a Springboard from PRC). Firmly believing that Jessie deserved her chance at a “voice,” we fought the school system and won. Everyone has the right to be heard and to learn to the best of their abilities. It is simply not acceptable to not teach children like Jessie and let them slip through the cracks in the system. Jessie is getting ready to start her senior year this fall at Watauga High School and we couldn’t be more proud of her.

Jessie has taught us a lot about life....such as to NEVER give up and to NEVER quit trying. No matter how hard the road looks, the trip will be a fun-filled adventure if you just know what you want and go for it. At first, with Jessie’s illness we were like all parents and had our mourning for what might have been and what could have been. Like all parents we had dreams for Jessie on the day she was born and a lot of her life now was not a part of those thoughts. We quickly realized our job was to not hide her from the world with the thought that we were protecting her. Our job was to be her advocates and help her make her “mark on the world.”  We started researching how to make her life easier and decided that being able to provide her with the ability to communicate is perhaps the most important life-changing thing we could do for her.

We are so proud of her positive and determined nature and can’t wait to see what adventures the rest of her life holds for her. Parents need to know it is their job to fight for their children and support them even when the teachers or professionals tell them it can’t be done. Follow your heart and educate yourselves by attending conferences and surrounding yourselves with “believers” and ditch the “nonbelievers” from your child’s life and we promise you will be amazed at the improvements in your child.

Our family motto has become, “Just remember the mighty oak is just one little crazy nut that stood its ground.”

Merlie and David

                                                                                                  Jessica with Barry Romich, PRC co-founder

 Editor’s Note:
Of special interest to Merlie, David and Jessica is Project Lifesaver. Learn more about it at http://www.ncpltaskforce.org/.
Jessica gets the first bracelet in her local area: http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2009/0409/lifesaver.php3

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PEC Conference Pittsburgh Employment Conference: "Welcome to My World!"

August 7-9, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel, Station Square in Pittsburgh. This conference is considered by some to be the most significant event in the field of AAC. It is the largest gathering in the world of people who use AAC. Learn more at http://www.shoutaac.org.

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