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PRC Profile of Success: Peter Paul

Making progress is so nice!

For all the years it took to finally get my son a communication device, his immediate success using a Prentke Romich Vantage was sweet indeed.

The road to AAC for 17-year-old Pete, who has Down syndrome and autism, took about eight years. I began requesting evaluations for consideration of a device when Pete was eight years old. He took ownership of his Vantage in September 2006. Since Pete has some spoken speech but his intelligibility is poor, I sought use of a dynamic communication device so that he could expand his ability to express himself, be more sociable, and increase his language skills overall.

It took less than six months of using the Vantage for it to become part of Pete's daily environment. He now takes it to and from school each day. It goes with him to order at fast food restaurants. He uses it to check himself in at the speech therapist's office and the doctor's office and is beginning to use it to give his birth date and address when needed. I have become used to taking the extra time to give him the opportunity to say it himself when they ask me his address or date of birth.

I confess to taking great delight in watching adults fumble around on the Vantage, looking for the right way to request something. I love that most of the adults on his team thought it would be too advanced for him since they found it extremely difficult. Not Pete! He continually shows us that he learns most steps with just one or two demonstrations. So when he is asked what he wants for dinner (for example) he quickly finds the "I want + pizza + and + salad + and + milk" icons. He tells us jokes; he told us "Nonni in heaven" after his beloved grandmother died. Pete is lightening-quick on the 45-2 hit Unity platform.

He is working on many skills simultaneously. That was the big piece that I couldn't figure out at first- where to begin? He did a lot of exploring and then began to perseverate with the song pages and the jokes. We are still working on the problem with his over-repeating words and phrases. He uses it to comment on things he sees on TV or talk about an upcoming holiday. Since downloading photos for a friends and family page, he lovingly comments on relatives he sees but once or twice a year, as well as folks he sees every day.

Pete does not use the "today is ___ ," or "tomorrow is ___ ," to tell us the days of the week. Rather, he uses it to name a person who is scheduled to help out or a planned activity. e.g. "Today is Becky. Dancing" (which happens on Thursdays). No one taught him that-it was his own discovery. He is using his Vantage at school for his modified science, math, and social studies, for conversational activities, and food choices. He is using the keyboard page to spell novel words and has quickly memorized several words that he uses a lot.

He is not always gentle with his Vantage, and we are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of him to figure out how to keep it from getting scratched, bumped, dropped, etc. He even put it in the microwave one Sunday morning. I had no idea why he was racing to the kitchen with his Vantage held high. Luckily he had the microwave on for but a second, and after re-plugging in the battery, it was ok. Unfortunately, he got such a thrill out of this forbidden activity that he managed to slip by our watchful eyes a few more times and "nuke" it, finally necessitating a trip to PRC for repairs.

Since then, we have been more successful at keeping the microwave unplugged and avoiding disaster. However, just a few weeks ago, Pete was busy rinsing his Vantage in the bathroom sink. I didn't ask why.... just dried it off, and prayed it would start up. It did.

Nonetheless, there is so much more to say about how our lives have been affected for the better since Pete became a Vantage user. I know there are families out there who have kids like mine who have some spoken language but who simply cannot make themselves understood. I feel like I am on a huge learning curve along with my son. Life is good!

Mary Beth Paul
Westerville OH
August 2007

I would like to express a special note of thanks to Jennifer Monahan, PRC representative, and Ann Marie Polovick, speech therapist at Children's Close to Home, Westerville, Ohio branch. Their exceptional assistance, training, and support have been a huge part of Pete's success. Having people who believe you can do it makes all the difference in the world!

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