Tuesday 31 March 2009

The Voice has arrived

Hannah's VOCA (voice output communication aid, that's a computer wot speaks to you and me) has finally arrived. We had to wait for a new battery to come as the old one wasn't charging so it's taken a little while but it is now here. A very nice lady called Karen came to show us how it works, and Hannah was away, touching all the buttons and making it say things. At the moment it is limited to snacks and songs (very motivating for the average three year old) but it is almost imfinitely expandable and so can grow with her. The only downside is that it is a large and heavy model, but it will definitely do for seeing if she gets on with it.

So we have spent this evening modifying the snack buttons to things we have in the house and are happy for her to choose, and then we generally played around with it - it's very cool. Chris has managed to reprogramme most of it already. We have been focussing on getting it, but tomorrow we'll start to use it and find out if Hannah gets on with it and how to fit it into family life. Sounds like a long process to me, and at the moment it is feeling quite daunting.

No comments: