Our AAC Journey - Look What She Can Do! - May 8, 2013

 
Last June, my kid started the evaluation process with a therapy group dedicated to AAC devices. Within a few weeks, we were surprised to find that the therapist recommended the PRC Vantage Lite2 over a few other options - but it made so much sense, too. (And I owe that therapist so much because there's no way we would have come across that option on our own - but it was perfect.) After months of working with the office's device, my kid got her very own VL2 - and all of her teachers and therapists (including her other SLP) embraced it, met with the rep for PRC on their own time, and made sure to check in with me and ask me questions and ensure that we were all on the same page.

The image above is a small peek into what the talker has changed for my kid. The interview was a fill-in-the-blanks style discussion, with the teacher asking leading questions. But even though only simple answers were required, a year ago this still would've been impossible. Now? She was able to participate just like all of her neurotypical classmates -- and her personality shines through. She loves the bus! She wants to work at the grocery store! She loves her kitties!

(As an aside, apparently now she's getting in trouble for telling jokes in class at inappropriate times. I'm sorry, but that doesn't exactly upset me.)

And meanwhile, her verbal ability has grown so much this year - dovetailing perfectly with her use of the AAC device. She sings along in the car now. (She is very specific about what songs she likes - she's into the Rockabye Baby Madonna CD right now, and track 11 in particular. "Bor-dah!" she says, rather clearly. [Borderline!] She also likes to sing along with Lisa Loeb, the Nields, and - much to my chagrin - Kindermusik songs from classes we took together in the past.) She speaks in short but complete sentences sometimes. ("I want my iPad, please." "I want more Enchanted. TV. Please.") She's able to say words with multiple syllables. I feel confident that we are on the path that her SLP speaks of often, where she will be mostly, if not completely, verbal - someday.

But the talker is making that possible, is bridging that gap, and will always be there for her if she needs it. (This is like how I imagine her walker will be used - she is now up to taking eight independent steps or more - the other day she took two steps, stopped, stood, adjusted her stance, and kept walking to me - and I suspect someday she'll walk most of the time. But I also believe she'll need assistance in some form at least part of the time.) And without the talker, she wouldn't have been able to do things now. She wouldn't have been able to talk to the President or ask how many more minutes until we get home or tell me that she wants to wear the black shirt again. In my experience, it is absolutely true that AAC encourages verbal speech and does not discourage or limit it.

I say this all the time, but we continue to be surrounded by positivity. People who believe in her, who have never said "she can't" or "she won't" and who open themselves up to possibility. We've started the process to the kindergarten transition, and we've already started working on getting the PRC rep over to the new school to meet with the new teachers. We. As a team. When my husband and I moved here, we knew the school system was "good," but we didn't know that we'd need it to be good in very different ways. We definitely have been lucky in that regard.

We're no longer with the therapy group that set us on our path, so I have been busy immersing myself in understanding Minspeak and the VL2. I will be taking an introductory class in two weeks and then following that up with whatever else I can do. I have already programmed more riddles into the device - like I said, I'm not entirely upset that apparently my kid is the class clown... (Sorry Lost Voice Guy! You might have some competition after all!)

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Update: Keurig Vue House Party Was a Success! - May 5, 2013

So it turns out that I am OK at throwing parties. While I spent a bit some a lot of time feeling overwhelmed at the sheer number of people in my house at one time (15, not including me, my husband, and our kid - but including other people's kids - that's a LOT for me!), I think I mostly did well managing the chaos. The kids played, the adults chatted with one another, and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen making coffee (hot and iced), iced tea, and hot cocoa for the gathered guests with my Keurig Vue. The kitties were banished to the office - I'm waiting for them to forgive me...

Ridiculous selfie - me with my apron on while I was baking. More about those coffee cups in a minute.

Taken by my friend. Me showing off the Vue. Awkward outfit looked cute in person, not in pictures, I think.

Since I never entertain this many people, I tried to go out of my way to do a few things that were special - beyond what House Party had sent me to throw the party. See the white coffee cups in the background of the selfie above? Those are from my wedding china. Which I have never used, and my 10th wedding anniversary is this August. 20/20 hindsight - I probably shouldn't have registered for china. But at the time it seemed like it was what one was "supposed" to do, so I did it. I thought I might someday host Thanksgiving or Passover - not realizing I was eventually going to move hundreds of miles away. So it just seemed like it was time. However, the cups only hold 6 ounces, so they really were more suited for decoration than actual use. Still, they got washed and they saw the light of day - it's a step! (I do think the pattern is nice - very simple. But if I had it to do over again, no, I would not register for china. I see plenty of fancy plate sets at Goodwill and other thrift stores...that says lots of people feel as I do and that it's easy enough to get a set for cheap if you really want one.)

The other thing I did was bake. I really like cooking and baking, but I never do it. My husband does most of the family cooking - it's just easier and it works well for all of us. But I love cookbooks and recipes (and, if you know me, books about food in general - ha!) and I like trying new things. Coincidentally, Snack Girl posted a recipe for baked donuts about a week before the party. I had been considering going to Revolution Donuts to buy some but instead, I made my own. And my good friend Kate has Amazon Prime (in which I probably should invest at this point) so I sent her money and she bought me a heart-shaped donut pan that arrived within a day. I made Snack Girl's donuts as well as these chocolate ones (though I used butter instead of olive oil, which seemed weird, and I skipped the glaze because I can't find my double boiler - er, not broiler, as the recipe says - and the last time I did the pan-on-water trick, I fused the two together and yes, eventually they came apart but I just didn't have the energy SO they were plain).

Oooh, Instagrammy goodness. And cute heart-shaped donuts.

And a week ago I made vanilla simple syrup with real vanilla beans and vanilla sugar with the rest of the beans, just to be fancy. I bought milk - 2%, whole, and half and half - and made sure I was stocked on Almond Breeze too. And I put out my array of Torani syrups too.

I forgot to take a before picture - this is sort of a halfway-through picture.

Then I put out Goldfish crackers and m&ms, and the rest of the party was from House Party - they really send a great party pack. I had Mrs. Fields cookies, mints, and coffee. Plus plastic and paper cups that I used for iced drinks, for the kids' hot cocoa (with Dandies vegan marshmallows!), and for when I ran out of my own mugs - which I did.

I think that my guests tried at least one of everything. Despite the fact that it was disgusting outside - pouring rain, 50 degrees - some chose iced drinks (my party pack included Nantucket blend iced coffee - the blend takes into account that it will be brewed over ice and thus diluted - I think my cold-brewed coffee is way better, but this is much faster and with milk/simple syrup, it's not bad at all - and also Southern Sweet iced tea, which I loved in a K-cup and loved even more in a Vue Pack - you can really taste the tea as well as the sugar, rather than just a cup of sugar...).

I also made vanilla lattes (fancy and fun!) and plain old coffee (Donut Shop and Barista Prima Italian Roast) and hazelnut coffee (which I really like). The hot cocoa I made was from Whole Foods - I just used the hot water from the Vue to make it. And I didn't manage to grab myself a cup of coffee for the entire party, but it was best that I wasn't overly caffeinated, I assure you.

The Vue, by the way, was a workhorse. It easily brewed 30 cups of whatever, all within a few hours, and had no issues. I like how it's quieter than my Keurig Special Edition was - it made it easy to stand in the kitchen and chat while I was overseeing the brewing process. I don't know if I would have bought one on my own - my regular Keurig was working just fine for me, K-cups are less expensive, and I'm a pro at my Ekobrew - but now that I have one I'm not sure I'll switch back. I probably will buy the Solofill reusable refillable filter (after coupon, it should be about $15 at Bed, Bath & Beyond), though I might wait to see how Keurig's official filter compares if/when they release it.

And I survived the party! And I now kind of want to do another one of these - I have my eye on the upcoming SodaStream HouseParty. Pick me! Pick me!

The aftermath - all headed to be recycled.

Don't forget - until May 11 you can get 40% off the Keurig Vue V500 brewer with my coupon code, and from May 12 through May 31 you can get 25% off. Register your brewer once you get it and you'll get a coupon code for buy-two-get-two-free Vue Packs. After that, I recommend BB&B for your Vue Pack needs - with a 20%, $5-off-$15, or $10-off-$30 coupon you can bring the price down to something very reasonable for the quality and convenience of Vue Packs, and right now it's one of the few stores that actually stock a good selection of flavors and types.

In the end, I will say that I recommend two things: House Party (though you may not get any parties for years - it's worth it when you do get chosen for one!) and the Keurig Vue V500 brewer. Hooray!

This post includes referral links - I get a small percentage from Amazon links and my Keurig Vue coupon gets me a credit to Keurig.com. But other links - Dandies, BB&B, etc. - are just because I want to share things. Thanks!

Keurig Vue House Party

As you probably know, I love my Keurig. Yes, the K-cups are pricier than just buying a bag of beans and grinding them or buying ground beans. Yes, they aren't very eco friendly. I know all the drawbacks. I also love kitchen toys and gadgets. I'm a casual coffee drinker (one to two cups a day) and the ability to make a single cup at a time (especially a flavored cup) is extremely appealing. My husband also drinks a cup or two a day, and he has different likes and dislikes, so the fact that he can quickly and easily make his own flavor/strength/type is a big plus too.

I mostly use my Ekobrew - occasionally I also use my Solofill - to use my own coffee in the machine anyway. And I love it. I love love love it.

Cut to HouseParty.com. If you're not familiar, basically House Party is a site that matches advertisers with people who want to throw themed parties in trade for a little word-of-mouth advertising. Sometimes there's a party for a TV show and the hosts will get a pack with some snacks and some themed goodies. Sometimes there's a party for a toy and the hosts will get a pack with toys, coupons, stickers, and more. And sometimes there's a party for a thing - like the SodaStream or the Keurig Vue. It's hard to get chosen as a host - there's really no way to tell how people are being chosen - and I tried multiple times to be chosen as a host for a SodaStream party (fail) and a Keurig Vue party (and a number of other parties as well).

And finally this time around, for whatever reason (I guess I was just the right demographic this time) I was chosen to host a Keurig Vue party and I was given a Keurig Vue V500 machine and a party pack with a selection of Vue Packs, mugs, mints, cookies, and cups. Nice!

I also was given a coupon code for 40% off of the Keurig Vue V500 system. That brings the cost of the Vue to around $100 - with free shipping! The code is WKWH18N - it's good only for the V500 and it expires on May 11.  However, from May 11 - May 31, 2013, you can then get 25% off of the V500 with code HP-V500-4 - that's still a great deal for this really nice machine! And if you register your brewer (you can register up to three per household) you get a coupon for buy-two-get-two-free coffee packs, which makes them very reasonably priced. NOTE that this is a referral code - if you use it, I get $25 to use at Keurig.com (up to $250). You may see other people sharing this code on various sites - be aware that they're not sharing it out of the goodness of their hearts, they're sharing it to get the kickback. I love transparency, don't you? ALL COUPONS HAVE NOW EXPIRED. Thank you to those who used them - I wound up with a very generous credit to use for more coffee at Keurig.com!

The Vue uses an entirely different set of pods from the original Keurig - it uses Vue Packs. Was this created in response to the K-cup's patent expiring, opening the market to third-party K-cups? I have no idea. The Vue does have some nifty new features that the older Keurig models didn't have though. It brews hotter. You can set coffee to brew "strong" (and it uses a different process when you select this option). It has different settings for brewing tea or hot chocolate or iced drinks. And it can do a two-step process where it brews a latte (I've tried and enjoyed the vanilla latte), a mocha, or a cappuccino with a milk pod (that has actual milk in it, not non-dairy creamer - they do also have pods with non-dairy creamer, but I avoid hydrogenated oils so I can't speak to those at all).

Will the latte or cappuccino be as amazing as if you frothed milk separately? Probably not. Will it be fast and cost less than going to Starbucks? Yup. Will it taste good? Yup! Also the plastic part of the pods is recyclable - hooray!

Sure it's not pour-over or percolator or whatever. I think it tastes good. In fact, I think this makes better coffee than my old Keurig (which I still love) and possibly better than when I make pour-over coffee. Cold-brewed coffee, however, will always have a place in my heart - and my fridge. (Also, I have my eye on Solofill's reusable Vue Pack - but I'm also waiting to see what Keurig has to offer whenever they release their own reusable pack.)

For the party, I'm going to make heart-shaped donuts based on Snack Girl's recipe. I never get to do fun things like this so I'm going to do some other Pinterest-y things as well. I'll post again with a recap soon!



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Therapy overload? - April 10, 2013

I've seen other parents write about their kids having therapy overload or burnout, but I truly didn't think we were there. After all, my kid loves her therapists. She's known almost all of them for a good part of her life. They're like family. They play with her - nothing is too terribly taxing yet (though sometimes her PT makes her do things she doesn't want, mostly it's just that she wants to swing and instead her PT needs some treadmill time first). We make the whole routine as fun as we can.

But I think we're hitting the wall.

For two weeks straight, when she'd walk into her speech therapist's room, she'd scream and cry and sign/say/use her talker to say "home." She'd kick and yell for a while after we left (speech therapy is my time and my husband's time to run to Target for 20 minutes - so exciting, and now there's even a new Starbucks in there, oooooh). This past week that behavior stopped.

But don't think that this means anything improved. Instead, this past week when we walked into her physical therapist's room, she flipped out. She screamed and howled at the loudest volume I have ever heard. She smashed me in the nose. She nearly broke my husband's glasses. She almost hurt herself a few times. She refused to communicate in any way, shape, or form. All I could eventually get out of her in the moment, with her talker, was "Sad." But that's her generic choice she uses when she's crying - we're trying to teach her variations in feelings, word-wise, but we're not there quite yet. Maybe she really was just sad, but I think there was a lot more going on. We had to drag her out without doing a therapy session (though it's been rescheduled).

In the car, once she'd calmed down a bit, she used her talker to say that she wanted to go to the farmer's market to buy fruit - echoing back to a discussion we'd had in the morning about our plans for the upcoming week. To me this indicated that since her routine was out of sorts during spring break, she thought that's where we were going and was upset that it was therapy time instead. (Today, two days later, she used her talker and verbal language to tell me that she wants to ride the bike and go outside with her PT. So I guess she's over whatever drama she was having, but in the moment it was very, very hard for all of us.) (Also, as an aside, when she finally went to the farmer's market with her daddy, she came home and said to me "I bought fruit." Which was very exciting, as you might imagine. But I digress.)

In light of all of this, we decided it was finally time to leave the therapist who works with us in all things AAC. It absolutely breaks my heart that we decided this - the therapist herself is fine, but it takes an hour to get there and an hour to get home, and there's usually traffic which not only adds time but also stress to my husband (who is the driver in the family). So that was two hours of travel for a 45 minute appointment (which started out at an hour until Medicaid messed around with codes and billing...). We'd also been pulling the kid out of school early once a week in order to make it to the appointment on time - something we knew all along we wouldn't be comfortable doing when she started kindergarten in August.

At this point, I feel like I've learned a lot in how to use and program her device and she's figured out how to use it very well. I'm immersing myself in the tips and tricks provided by PRC and by Facebook pages of AAC experts, and I have the PRC rep out there available for questions and to help talk to the new school's staff. I hate leaping without a net (no specific therapist for the device), but I was starting to not see as much of a benefit as I did in the beginning - and unfortunately the benefits I did see didn't outweigh the problems with the distance. Before we left for the final session, the kid used her talker to tell us the name of her therapist and "speech therapist" before waving her hands adamantly and saying "home." There was no mistaking what she was saying. (She did go on to have an amazing session, and I cried a bit when we explained the situation and had to say goodbye, but it otherwise went very well.)

We're only doing OT alternating weeks, and it's only a half hour each time, and so far she hasn't freaked out on that. Horseback riding is a special treat - I don't think she has any idea that it's therapeutic.

Plus she gets PT, OT, and speech in school a few times a week and her teachers are all always trying to help her succeed in non-specific but therapeutic ways. And then of course me and my husband...

That is a lot of therapy. Yes.

The progress she's making in therapy is astounding - I'm not willing to drop anyone else from her routine at this time, though three of the other therapies are only 5-20 minutes from home at most and while hippotherapy takes longer to get to, we go with friends, we have pizza every week, and it has very unique and specific benefits that I see each and every time we go. (And the fact that my kid is telling me knock knock jokes and giving me details about her day and telling me she wants the "green swing" means that the drive for the AAC therapy was beyond worth it - if the practice was closer, we might have continued.) But I can see that she's getting sick of it and starting to resist. We'll work on it. We'll figure something out. Her summer camp is inclusive but doesn't include specific therapies (school does) so she'll get a bit of a break before she starts kindergarten in August.

If you're a special needs parent who found my blog (I think I'll probably link this one up on the Love That Max linkup this weekend), have you experienced therapy burnout with your kid? How did you handle it? And please, stay a bit - say hi! Check out some of my other entries! Point me to your blog! I love comments! (I have them filtered just to weed out spammers.)

Contest (NOW OVER): Win a free bottle of New Dial Coconut Water Body Wash!

OK this is probably my last contest post for a bit. Thank you to Purex Insiders for giving me the chance to try a few new products and share them with my readers.

Recently I was sent a bottle of new Dial Coconut Water Body Wash. I have used it multiple times and I really like it. It smells good, it lathers up well, it cleans, it makes my skin feel hydrated and moisturized. And it costs less than some of the fancy body washes that you can get at boutiques. Good stuff. I'd buy it again.

Dial Coconut Water Body Wash

First of all, Dial is running its own contest - you can win $1,000 cash or a free bottle of Coconut Water body wash. Enter here!

And from me you can win a coupon good for one free bottle of Coconut Water body wash from Dial. Two people will win. US addresses only. Contest runs from March 29, 2013, through April 6, 2013, or longer if I feel like extending it. Please and thank you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Dial Soap provided me with a sample of their new Coconut Water body wash in exchange for a product review - but they can't make me write the review nor say nice things. All opinions are mine. Yadda yadda the end.

Little tiny update, great big kvell - March 18, 2013

I have posts to write. Serious posts. Review posts. Giveaway posts. But I've been busy and distracted and a tiny bit lazy.

I just had to tell you that right now, if you go to the White House's Facebook page, my daughter is in the picture that is being used as the banner.

My baby.

And if you squint, you can even see her AAC device in that picture. [ETA: The way the picture is cropped in the header, you actually can't see it - you can see an iPad they're using, but not her device. However, if you scroll down the page to see the uncropped version, you CAN see it in that.]

And as the Internet is the Internet, by the time you are reading this the picture may have been swapped out for something else. If that is the case, just know that for one brief moment, my beautiful girl was part of history.

(Just don't read the comments.)

(Ever.)

(Ever ever ever.)

Thrifting Madness - March 9, 2013

Have you ever heard of and/or do you believe in Mercury Retrograde? I do. I do do do. The kid's talker has been randomly malfunctioning. My phone is being pissy. And on Friday morning our Internet went out right when I was supposed to be at work (I currently have a gig working offsite for a large - and famous! - company). And when I asked the guy outside how long it would take to fix, he said "a couple of minutes," but I wound up having to go to Starbucks to take advantage of free WiFi instead. And their WiFi plus some internal sites I work with = disaster. I struggled through the morning, wasn't able to reach my husband on his phone, and finally went home annoyed but finished with my workday. I'm shaking my fist at the sky right now!

Luckily I had a day planned to hang out with Amy and go shopping and also chat and run around and just be happy. Of course the subway misbehaved a bit on my way, but I made it and we shopped. We hit three stores this time - my favorite indie store, a Value Village, and a Goodwill.

First, Value Village. I haven't tried anything on yet, so I don't even know if anything fits, but the prices were good enough and the clothes were cute enough that I took some risks.

Clothes for the kid. She was REALLY excited about the top left Old Navy logo shirt when I showed her. I like the flower/planet shirt, which is from REI. Yellow tags were half price, so that one was $1.25. The other things were $1.50 each.

If it's Hello Kitty, I must have it. Even if it's a weird size and shape. I don't know if this will fit but I don't care. It's an official Sanrio shirt, and the back says "Hello Kitty" as you probably would guess. $2.50.

Grrr. Plain boring but very soft shirt for half price (75 cents) but as I put it out to take a picture, I saw that the back has a pinhole in it. I'm hoping it will fill in when I wash it or will otherwise not be noticeable but it's SO ANNOYING. Cute bunny logo in the bottom right though.

Meow Mix. Had to have. I think this was $1.50.

Each of these was $1.50. Both are ridiculous.

Yay! Jeans in my size for $1.75. I hope they fit.

Next, FAVORITE INDIE STORE EVER that supports the Humane Society, has sweet people working, and just all around rules. I found lots yesterday. All the kid clothes were 50 cents/piece. Then some of the stuff for me was 50 cents, some was $1.50, and one piece was $2. I have no idea what's what and I don't really care because SERIOUSLY so cheap.

Super soft plain Lands End shirt. Another demonstration of vanity/inconsistent sizing - this says that Small = size 6/8. That's a generous small - or it's an accurate small. You be the judge.

This made me laugh and I don't have enough hoodies. I love the obnoxious eyes on that mug in the middle.

Plain soft Old Navy shirt with 3/4 sleeves.

Woot shirt! It's a men's medium, so it fit me but wasn't particularly flattering. I told my husband I might make him wear it (particularly when I wear the amazing Woot shirt my friend bought me as a present - they're similarly geekily themed and wonderful).

Boatneck Gap shirt. Love.

OK so I think this might actually be a little kid shirt maybe. I have no idea. It fit me just barely and I DID NOT CARE. Because it has Hello Kitty, skulls, and lightning bolts. Of course I had to have it.

Back of shirt. SEE?!

Plain soft T-shirt.

Pants/capris for the kid.

Shirt for kid. There's no theme to this entry. None at all.

Every little girl needs SOME animal print in her life. Also it's Gymboree, so it's well made.

Limited Too dress that seems small to me for what it claims on the tag but might be good late summer/early fall with leggings. Gymboree top that also might not fit the kid but for 50 cents, we can try.

 I also bought books at both the indie store and the Goodwill. I'm not supposed to buy any more books but...but...there was a sale and they were cheap and basically oops.

I sort of bought this as a joke. Also I think they threw it in for free.

The Kind Diet and Skippy Jon were both from the Goodwill - $2.50 and $1.91 respectively (SJ is a book of puzzles and it was brand new). That Sugar Pie book and the Charmed Bracelets book were...stupid of me to buy but they have really pretty pictures and I broke. The Elizabeth Gilbert book was thrown in at the last minute because of the sale/how many I needed to get the right price. The Help was either 50 cents or free. And the cookbook in the middle is a 1933 book about baking that really was all I should have purchased. Not shown, another book that I got for my friend as part of the sale/deal.

Detail inside the cookbook, which is, obviously, a sponsored product.

I also hit two consignment sales recently - I won't post pictures, but I did get the kid some cute stuff and I think that she's now set for the spring and summer as long as everything I got fits. I also have a giant garbage bag of outgoing clothes - mine and hers - as well as a pile of jeans in a lot of old sizes that don't fit me anymore that needs to go out out out. Next up, getting rid of more books since I brought these in the house. Whee! Now to wash everything and try it all on!