Week 2- Communication-Proloquo2go

Effective communication requires:

1. Common language

2. Communication partner

3. Joint attention

When I think about communication, I immediately think speaking and writing. However, communication is much more than that. On a daily basis I communicate with my students, colleagues and family using signals, drawings, gestures, posture, facial expressions, etc. Reading my students' facial expressions and body language when I greet them in the morning also provides me with information regarding how to start my day. 

The importance of communication led us into our assignment for today's class. One of the things I love about this class is that we get to spend time doing hands on tasks, things we can easily apply to our classrooms. Today our task was to use the app Proloquo2go to create speech boards based on individual student needs. We were working towards creating an AAC communication device. Communication boards for people who are non-verbal have power because it teaches them how to communicate. As we were analyzing the student's background information, we quickly realized that we had many questions about the student that would determine what we included on the device. The questions that we had would require the involvement of the student, the student's parent/guardian, teachers, and specialists. However, in this situation we used our professional judgement to fill in the missing information. Our student was a grade 6 boy who was fully integrated into the classroom. Since this student has difficulties with his fine motor and gross motor skills, we decided that it would be best for him to use an iPad as a device. We chose a 3x3 grid for the communication board that had spaces in between each cell so it would be easier for the student to use. Our student has some visual difficulties, therefore we chose a white background so there would be a high contrast between the background and the photos on the individual buttons. As we were planning each communication board (i.e. home, school, hospital, community) on paper it became very time consuming. We wanted to make sure that we included all the possible information that the student would need, since this was his way of communicating. We found it easier to plan each setting and plug them in as they were completed so we could see it and manipulate it ourselves as a work in progress. The photo below resembles the 3x3 grid that we created.

 The Proloquo2go app itself was very user friendly. We were able to easily add buttons and folders, copy and paste high frequency questions and answers and rearrange things as needed. We learned so much information today in a short period of time. One of the most important things I learned about this this app today was that it has many settings that can be adjusted based on the students needs.

Check out the link below. It shows a video clip from CBS news. It focuses on the app Proloquo2go and the benefits of this app for people who are nonverbal.

• Apps for Autism – Proloquo2Go featured on CBS News 60 Minutes 

Below is a tutorial on how to get started using Proloquo2go.

Click here for a detailed users manual for Proloquo2go.