Transcript for:
Enhancing Tessie's Communication with a Book

when high ready I see you're ready hands what are you ready for when we see tests using our words I want - good job t-turn yeah yeah she told me exactly what she wanted was that cool I want oranges good job good job Tessie good ask him whether you want more a lot more just from us my lord and like how you're asking for Orion motors remember and have more over here if you want more you can just ask for it I see you [Music] good job good job fixing it yourself - that was so good you did so good one another one good job Tessie no I'm going to show you what we've been doing this is tessie's little textbook and she has her yeah I want oranges good looking I want orange it is good job Tessie wanted oranges Mickey see if we do not need this long enough or we might never be long enough okay one more time I don't have pizza you you want cookies and orange we can only do one at a time we have to pick one so which one do you want to pick how about Beth [Music] you pick you pick one okay [Music] I want oranges good job I got another one cookies I'm on mortgages now I'm here so this is tessie's little textbook and in it so on the front she has these pictures that are pictures she's been using pretty regularly today she had a strip that she hands to me when she makes the sentence and the front of the book has strips of velcro that go across on the bottom and then the vertical strips where I keep the frequently used little pictures and I basically just laminated pictures at her just so made for us know what are you gonna make okay [Music] I wanna I don't wanna cheat okay I'm gonna have to go get okay here let me do it okay you say it I want oranges yeah I don't want oranges I want oranges I want one just okay let's go get more one second we will be back I could say no but I mean we just are healthy so that's why I'm feeling the authority of the day that girl loves oranges when I feel my first runs of the day someone who actually only remember lady were you supposed to take that nut cracker off the tree Miss Mary service we're gonna have to put them back yeah mm-hmm thank you good waiting good ready hands though so orange you asked for which huh yes I'm sorry there you go good job I'm so proud of you let's try this again yep water shark well you found there's candy inside in that water shark you're right all right so I'm ready to talk about the front of the book I'm not sure how long we're gonna get before it there's another request for oranges but you can see kind of how the book works very very effectively Tessie has been learning about this book in therapy and Tessie has maybe four words that she uses she says MA she says - she says go and so she does not have super effective communication she doesn't have really a very effective way to ask for the things that she wants however with her book she has all of these pictures and they are pictures for foods if you want more you can ask me for more though if you want more you can ask me for more their pictures for foods there's pictures for things that she does during her day for naps if she's tired and just there's room for more pictures and I think we all know where this is going I'm sure lose this trip she hands this trip to me and she says turn it three way I want oranges Iowa oranges good looking at me good looking how so good basically the face the tessie's not right now is she rose that I want and she removes whatever it is that she wants and she puts it on a strip down here today it has been all day long she then removes the strip she hands the strip to me and then when I hold the strip up for her she then tweets to what she wants and I read it back to her while she's pointing to the thing that she wants it's very exciting and it is very very exciting for us because she's a Hello Baby you wanna I'm actually not supposed to talk I'm supposed to stay quiet so that she can focus on what she's doing sometimes the me being private which I'm sure that I only had this for a couple days I want orange I want orange good job yeah why don't you take two pieces or oh you want one okay one is good and they actually expected there to be a little bit of pushback she's been doing this at school for a few weeks now she has been doing amazingly at school but they weren't sure how she was going to do at home because of course doing it as school is one thing generalizing it and using it a home is something else and so they expected her to be a little bit difficult about it for a few days once she got home and when I came in to learn about it at school she did not want to show me that she could do this at school and she sat in a chair for 10 minutes and completely refused in any way to acknowledge her book even though she had a bowl of ice cream a bowl of chips the were basically every single one of her favorite things in her house she would not do this with me and then we got home with it and she immediately started using it to ask for everything that she wanted and so that was really really exciting for all of us we went out to pee so the first day and I put this little book in front of her she hadn't really had to use it very much at home I put it next to her at the pizza parlor and she we had we given her breadsticks but we didn't give her a piece of pizza right away I know right away she used at ask for a piece of pizza and she has used to ask for a drink of water out of her cup then another drink of water and pretty much from there on out no she has been using it to ask for everything that she wants and so oranges I want oranges right away we give the orange good job babes so pretty much since then she has been using it at home and which is also great because we're on Christmas break so she's not going to school for two weeks so hopefully that will help her stay sharp on what she's learning this school which was working on in school and hopefully at the same time it will keep on being frustrated because the only forwards it's got to be frustrating for her when high ready I see her Eddy hands what are you ready for let me see just using her words yeah yep she told me exactly what she wanted was that cool yeah with only four words it's gonna be frustrating for her but at the same time she knows what she wants and with this she can tell me what she wants like the other day we were at speech and it looked to me like she was reaching for a bowl of goldfish and they had her a pecks book for her at speech and honestly I thought she was it looked for repeatedly like she was reaching past this toy going for the bowl of goldfish over and over and over again and then she goes for the pecks board me I held the pecks board up for her and she grabbed the TWiT card and put it on the strip and I was like I was ready to crack sure because I'm so sure I heard oh she was like no no what what picture did she pick and I said the toy and she handed her the red quite what she wanted she hadn't wanted the thing that it looks like because I've asked her gross motor skills she was going for the toy was what she actually wanted I want oranges you want an orange se is even five oranges today can you believe that she's full of oranges it's like you and apples you eat five apples in the day she eats my oranges in the day these kids love fruit but nothing could get you eat vegetables like that so the thing is sometimes I think I know what she wants it seems like she's been demonstrating what she wants physically and I think I just have to remember that sometimes what I think she wants isn't really all that clear and then I actually need to listen to the book because it really was that clear we wouldn't really need the book that but we do need the book this has really shown me how completely and totally I underestimated her language skills I knew that she was smart but if you told me two months ago that she was capable of this I would have been skeptical and she was very very capable of this and it's an awesome way to find out what she's like you know what she wants anyways that is it for today if you are interested in seeing updated family and all things autism and if you jur this video we would love it if you do like