A Dragon And His Autistic Person

I am diagnosed with ASD level 2. I am semiverbal and use AAC. I love answering questions related to autism, AAC, ADHD and related conditions!

[shepandem]

Hello. My name is Shep. I’m a dragon. I take care of a human girl named Em. She has autism, and is a part-time AAC user. That means she has an electronic lady in a box who speaks words for her when she can’t. Em likes making friends, but has a hard time finding them, because her brain works differently. We came here in the hope of meeting some interesting people, especially others who have electronic people in boxes who speak for them. That’s all for now. We’ll check back in later!

[shepandem]

I created a new subreddit for AAC users of all kinds. Part time, full time, low tech, high tech, everyone is welcome! I’ve never made a sub before, and I’m working it out as I go along. I hope to see you all there! It’s called

r/askaacusers

[shepandem]

I might be autistic, how do I like get a diagnosis?

It depends on your age, geographic location, and whether health insurance is involved. I can only speak to how to do it in the US.

You can ask your primary care doctor for a referral to a specialist who can conduct assessments. You can also Google search assessment centers in your area. You'll probably have to contact the places you find directly for information on pricing and their process/availability.

I was diagnosed through the public assessment center run by my local university. They didn't take insurance, but they had an income-based sliding scale fee that was helpful.

I would recommend against online-only assessment centers; they have a higher chance of being scams or diagnosis mills. I've heard that about Embrace Autism, as a common example.

[shepandem]

What's the name for an age regressor who doesn't regress because they're permanently regressed already?

Chronologically I'm 33. Socially and emotionally I'm permanently 6-12. It might be related to my autism, but I'm not sure.

I was riding my scooter this evening alongside my caregiver who was walking her dogs, and a teenager passed us. My first thought was, "She's way bigger [older] than me." It was jarring when I had to mentally remind myself that I'm probably more than twice her age.

I wish I could be like a kid in a cartoon, who never grows up. Elmo from Sesame Street has been three and a half for the last thirty-odd years. The only thing I like about adulthood is not having to go to school. I hated school.

[shepandem]

Today my ABA therapist and I added a new social questions page to my talker, so I can ask my friends at group questions about themselves!

The questions we added were:

- What do you do for fun?

- Do you have any hobbies?

- What do you like about that?

- How long have you done that?

- How did you get into that?

[shepandem]

I submitted my story of how using AAC has impacted my life to the company that provided my device, and they published it!

It's the second story down on the page. They also made a cute animation that looks really cool, and the AAC in it is my exact personal screen. The only part I don't like about it is the song they used, because I'm not religious.

Here's the link!

https://www.forbesaac.com/user-stories-aac

[shepandem]

Do you plan to switch to LAMP over P2G? If so what are your reasons? Been thinking about buying P2G when it go on sale so want to see what people who both use app and who might be switching away from it too

I did end up switching over to LAMP. My biggest reason was how fast LAMP will be when I'm more fluent on it. Every button is a maximum of 3 hits away, as opposed to P2G that can have five or even six hits for some buttons. LAMP also has a single button for each word. For example, the word "happy" occurs in one location in LAMP, and in four or five different locations in P2G. It means you have to work harder to find words in LAMP, because there's only one "right answer", whereas with P2G you can get away with more guessing, and still probably find the word you want.

P2G is more intuitive, and LAMP has a steeper learning curve, but I like the fact that the motor planning aspect of LAMP (having one location per word) means that once you get good at it, it's much more instinctive and less manual to use, like learning to type on a keyboard; eventually your fingers just know where the letters are without you thinking about it.

I'm finding that this is already starting to happen for me after a month of using LAMP. Even if I'm finding a word for the first time, I know that verbs, nouns, pronouns, etc. all have their own set locations within their secondary pages, and I can go to that location immediately.

Ultimately LAMP and P2G are both solid choices. The TLDR version is that P2G takes less time to learn but more time to get the motor patterns down, and LAMP requires more time lo learn, but the motor patterns for familiar words and word types happen much more quickly.

[shepandem]

Transcript: "This is a great way to put someone off learning AAC."

This is Speak for Yourself. It has 4,994 buttons. Some of those buttons include "marina", "Taj Mahal", "heartbroken", and "conjugation".

It falls into the trap of trying to include every word possible, and ends up overcomplicating itself and becoming inaccessible.

It should be left up to the user to decide if they want to include niche words like these, so as not to overwhelm them with too many choices that aren't relevant to them. For instance, I don't live within 1200 miles of a marina, and don't have much use for the word in my device.

If someone is just starting out with AAC, and that person is fluent at constructing sentences and needs to have the full vocabulary turned on, they're more likely to not bother with this app because of how overly complicated and visually overwhelming it is.

[shepandem]

Transcript: “My AAC is dry in here.”

I found this awesome waterproof bag to put my AAC in for when I go swimming!

My actual device is too wide with its handles to fit, so I had to put my app on my recreational ipad mini, but this is going to be a game changer for special olympics!

[shepandem]

Transcript: "Today's word of the day is "another". "Another"."

I'm choosing one word a day that I've been having trouble finding consistently, and using that word in as many sentences as I can. Today's word is "another".

[shepandem]

AAC buddies!

[shepandem]

Jemma's AAC arrived! She has touchchat, and she loves it. Her speech therapist helped her set it up, and she's ready to start talking!

[shepandem]

Transcript: "I do Special Olympics, am really fast!"

I had my first Special Olympics swim practise today. The coach timed me, and my backstroke was one of the fastest on the team!

I have my first competition in April. I'm nervous!

[shepandem]

My LAMP keyguard arrived today! I was worried the holes would be too small for my thumbs, but they're not! It feels good to have the extra stability again.

[shepandem]

Jemma is very excited. She's been seeing a speech therapist, who prescribed AAC for Jemma's selective mutism. She's been using this blue loaner device while she waits for hers to arrive. It'll be here in a few days.

Jemma's teachers say they've already noticed an increase in her communication at school, and she's starting to make friends for the first time!

[shepandem]

I'm reading Shep a story using my AAC!

It's "Owen" by Kevin Henkes. Reading on your AAC is another great way to practise!

[shepandem]

Transcript: "I have a question for all my friends who chose to become full time aac users despite having functional speech. How did you do it and what were the consequences?

I'm so tired of verbal speech. Being expected to give some response to every remark someone makes, regardless of how inane, is exhausting.

My AAC makes me feel brave. I can start conversations on her that I would never in a million years start up with someone verbally.

Beyond this, my verbal voice hurts. It aches and gasps from my paralysed cord working so hard.

So, to my friends who made the transition to using AAC full time out of want rather than need, what are things like? Better or worse than before, and why?