13 May, 2010

surreptitiously left on a desk in Joe's classroom

a girl wearing glasses and holding up a greeting card with a picture of an armadillo on the front

Dear Cheryl (and the rest of Class Four),

Thank you a lot for letting me visit your class and be a part of Circle Time! Also, thank you for giving me the bag last week. I especially like the class picture, because I am in the middle of finals and I'm really stressed out, but when I look at the picture of Class Four it puts me in a better mood. Coming here has been one of the best parts of my week.

I have a question about Joe. I was wondering what you guys do when Joe expresses that he wants to do things. For example, the other week the kids who can walk went outside to practice for the Special Olympics, and when Joe heard the word "outside," he smiled and made a lot of noise as if he wanted to go outside. But his reaction didn't change anything and he still had to stay inside.

I'm worried because Joe seems so low-key, and I'm afraid that if no one reacts when he does express himself, he will just give up and think it isn't worth it. Of course I only see a small part of the school week, so I might have a wrong impression. But I got this impression a few times and I can't help worrying because I like Joe so much.

Sincerely,
Amanda

7 comments:

  1. I wonder, have they ever probed AAC with Joe? He seems like a prime candidate.

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  2. He does, very much. I don't know if they do that kind of thing here.

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  3. Where is "here"? A third world country?

    If he's in the US, not only is his school legally obliged to probe AAC technologies, the government will likely pay for the device too. Your state probably has something similar to UCAT. :)

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  4. ha ha. Ohio.

    I just mean...you never see any disabled people using anything like that, kids or adults.

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  5. I read a quote once from the Prez/CEO/somethingorother of Dynavox where he stated only about 10% of kids who could benefit from AAC technology actually have access to it, and that the penetration into adult disabled populations is even worse. He then went on to talk about how wonderful his company is at making these products more accessible (the evidence for this is sorely lacking in my experience).

    Go figure. Most of the folks I encounter here in Utah who seem like they should be using AAC are not either.

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  6. yeah, I saw your post about him. what a d-bag.

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