the original position without extraneous moments or over- flow in other area of her body. 4. We explained to Laroncita what we thought her body was telling us and asked permission to go to the next step. With her permission, I held my hand to the left side of her face and asked that she touch it on command. She seemed to do this effortlessly, with minimal delay, and ability to return to neutral position. 5. Again, with permission, we offered a switch. We did not have access to a full range of switches but did find a minimalist switch. The member, at this point onboard and apparent- ly hopeful, reliably, repeatedly and with minimal fatigue accessed the switch, searched for it as necessary, released and returned to midline and retouched seamlessly and with intentionality. 6. The next stage was to mount the interim switch to guaran- tee that the overzealous I, who at this point was doing the happy dance, was not responsible for the accurate timely hit/release patterns we had observed. We located sufficient sections of the flexible modular hose mounting with mount plate (plate was larger than preferred but that which was available). While I held the switch, Candice got it positioned just right and we both stood back: Laroncita demonstrated continued and continuing ability to hit and release a single switch to the left of her face. Overflow and fatigue were not factors. 7. The familiar device was mounted at eye level for scanning, not to block eye contact for communication and navigation through the building. Laroncita was previously familiar with the communication targets and layouts, and this hastened mastery. After minutes communicating using simple scan- ning, she quickly progressed toward single switch row col- umn scanning with dwell. Although the OT - SLT ATP team may have moved her to a more complex speed enhancing scanning array, row column scanning was the client’s pre- ferred array. She spoke for over twenty minutes with full attention to the screen – she even spoke while we were set- ting up the system! 8. Laroncita quickly spoke “I am excited” and asked to be taken to see her favorite care provider in another room. This per- son was absent that day, but the member initiated conver- sation with everyone she saw on the way!
A). Person with motor access challenges and complex communication needs.
B). Note communicative intent and total communication strategies, while Candice Steel, B.S., SLT, ATP is re-calibrating eye gaze input.
C). Example of page she had previously accessed using eye gaze.
26
www.closingthegap.com/membership | October / November, 2019
BACK TO CONTENTS
Closing The Gap
© 2019 Closing The Gap, Inc. All rights reserved.
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator