"What we have here is an ability to communicate..."

We've been working hard on enabling Will to communicate... he's shown us so many times that he understands and has an interest in what is going on around him. So now we want him to realize that he can impact the world around him also. For several months, we've been working on making Will's clicking noise into a "yes" response. For instance, we'd tickle him and then ask if he wanted more... if he clicked, then we tickled him again. But we were finding that the clicks were a little inconsistent and if Will got really excited about something, he'd just click and click and click.

So we started looking for something a little more consistent for him. Several of Will's therapists recommended that we try a recordable communicator, like the Big Mac. If you look at the video above, the yellow button on Will's left is the Big Mac, and the green one on Will's right is the aptly named Little Mac. Basically, you can record a message on the recorder so that when the button is hit, the recorded message plays. The only differences between the two are the color and button size.

In other conversations with therapists and through our own observations, we've determined that it is "easy" for a special needs child to remain like a baby because (in Will's case) he continues to need assistance with eating, positioning, etc. and is slower with reaching developmental milestones such as speaking. So we've made it another goal to "toddler-ize" Will in an appropriate manner. To do this, we are going to give him choices and allow him to be have more control over his situations. The Macs allow Will to tell us what he wants.

The video doesn't have the greatest sound, so for your understanding of what is happening, the green Little Mac on Will's right says "more" and the yellow Big Mac on his left says "all done." Our first stop in Will's "toddler-ization" is to allow him to tell us when he wants more food, and when he's had enough. Solid food feeds occur three times a day at our house, so this is a lot of consistent daily practice for Will to communicate!

He's definitely getting the hang of hitting the "more" button when he wants more food! We're still working on where to place the "all done" button so that he can reach it regularly, but because Will has limited movement in his left arm, its a little more of a challenge. I think you'll be able to see from the video that he's enjoying the cause-and-effect of telling us what he wants and then having it happen! He's also showing us that he's a little comedian by biting down hard on the spoon.

Nate and I couldn't be prouder of him! And we're so excited to continue to use the Big and Little Macs to allow Will to communicate different things in different situations, as well as continue to enable him to make choices. Cool Hand Luke also enjoys hitting the Macs... though we think he just does it because we ask him not to!