Alex does not use spoken language and is reliant on non-verbal means to communicate his wants and needs. At The Oaks Specialist College, we have been able to find technological means to give Alex better options to communicate and the confidence to do so.
Alex’s life has been transformed through technology. Being non-verbal, he has previously relied on Picture Exchange Communication (PEC) and gestures to communicate his wants/needs but, when initially arriving at The Oaks, he was purely using these to request use of the college sensory room. To give Alex the confidence to develop his communication skills, we introduced an app-based picture communication method called GoTalk.
Alex, who adores watching videos on his own device, quickly took to using the app on an iPad, and his ability to adapt to a new method of communication has been hugely successful. When the photo communication board was shown to Alex, he immediately touch-pointed to request the ball pit, with no modelling or prompts.
As well as using the device to make clear choices on how to spend his time, Alex can now use it to make simple requests too, and he is able to navigate across the pages without support.
Now that Alex knows he can use technology to help him communicate, he has had the confidence to use the app in the community and at home. When it was his sister’s birthday, he found the happy birthday song on YouTube and walked into her room playing it. Alex has increased the number of symbols he uses on the iPad and is now able to use more than one symbol at a time, to create a sentence.
The Oaks has helped Alex find a solution that interests him and has had a profound affect for him and his family.
