In a brief followup to last week's post, we've gotten our hands on a copy of the Speak4Yourself app that has cause such a kerfluffle in the AAC world. We've all been playing with it over the weekend, and once we've had a chance to fairly evaluate it, I will definitely do a write up.
My initial observations? It is really robust, with a bit of a learning curve. At the same time, it is much less similar to MinSpeak than I thought it would be, and I'm less convinced than before that the lawsuit by Semantic Compaction and PRC is going to gain very much traction. There are a few features I'd like to see (although in all fairness, I probably just haven't found them yet), and some (such as the seamless interaction with texting apps) that I think are brilliant.
So more soon on that.
 |
| art by Edith Meyer, 2007 |
My severely autistic - slowly learning to talk - 10yr old would probably happily call his a monster too. He doesn't embrace his "way of being" gently. He dislikes the limits that have to be put on him to be safe. He doesn't always understand why something has to be a certain way. He's academically smart in many ways - reading, writing, graphic arts/photos (DSi and nobody taught him to do the amazing things he does on it) - but in many ways trapped and he knows from watching his older bro, his freedoms, his activities that he is very much different.
ReplyDeleteMay she win her battles with Polly or negotiate a truce to her liking.
We'll keep chipping away at our monster as well. Autism awareness month is this month and I'm very much tired about how he should "accept" his autism and how it's a "way of being"... they definately have never asked him what he thinks... have they?