Being a special needs family can be isolating at times.  Sometimes we are selective about how much we share about our ups and downs – but at the same time we need to give those who are close to us a chance to understand if we want to be understood.

This can be hard – especially with family members and friends that don’t see our kids very often, and when they do see them it can be at large family events with many distractions so they don’t always get to experience what our “complex communicator” is capable of.  This makes it harder for them to see and understand what our kids are like and what they can do.  In those moments it is easy to see the differences – what our kids can’t do that their peers, siblings, and cousins can do… but not always easy to see the depth of what they CAN do… and what they are really like…

We live, eat, and breathe AAC at home…at least we aspire to…. but there are many people that love our kids that don’t.  So how to do help them understand?

There is a wonderful book that was recommended to me by AAC Specialist Rachael Langley over a year ago… I purchased it and it sat on my desk for a year but when I picked it up to read during a family road trip in November – by the time we got home we decided that we needed to get a copy to all of our kids’ aunts, uncles, grandparents and godparents.  The book is Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.  It is a fictional novel told from the perspective of a non-verbal 11 year old girl.  I highly recommend it.  Available at Amazon.

We decided that for Christmas we would give everyone a copy of the book so that they could better understand that there is so much more going on inside of Grace that we are fortunate to witness because we are around her all the time – but not everyone can.  That just because she doesn’t “talk” doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have something to say.  And that we need to “assume competence” to use a common phrase in the AAC community – because even though she has the verbal speech of a baby or toddler – doesn’t mean that she is still a baby, or like baby toys and books.  I couldn’t be happier that she has moved past the toddler toys and is into Barbies, and Star Wars action figures instead!

In addition to the book we also gave them all Core board mugs.  We did this not only to remind them of Grace but to also hopefully pick up the location of her core words by “osmosis” so that when they do get the opportunity to spend some time with her – they will hopefully find it easier to locate some of the words to model them on her device.  So they can “model AAC to speak AAC” with Grace. 🙂

We were hoping to help others grow in understanding us a bit… and we have already heard about so many great reactions from both friends and family.  Her therapists absolutely loved their mugs and were showing them off to their colleagues.  Family members were excited to take them to work to use at their desks as a conversation piece and to spread awareness in their workplaces.  Some family friends even reported becoming emotional upon seeing the mug or reading the book.

Here’s to 2018 – my hopes are that our AAC communication will grow in our home and grow and expand through our extended friends and family as well!