CHAT Blog
Imagine you are bursting with thoughts, emotions, opinions and every other kind of idea that most people communicate via their voices, but you can’t. That describes the first ten years of Graham Tresness’s life. He is a typical pre-teen, only he can’t talk because his cerebral palsy limits his muscle control. The Tresnesses spent 10 years trying to find a way for their son to communicate. He now has a device made by Tobii that allows him to use his eyes to write messages and then speaks for him. After the Tresnesses found a way for their son to communicate, they wanted to share their knowledge and experience with as many people as possible. The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) has partnered with Barb Tresness, Graham’s mother, and Beth Tollar, a trained speech and language pathologist who specializes in augmentative communication, to develop an awesome new program called Communication Hope through Assistive Technology (CHAT). Encompassing a variety of activities, CHAT's main goal is to help children and young adults who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to communicate better and help their community see AAC as an accepted way of communicating. For more information about AAC, see Augmentative and Alternative Communication, a blog post by Kate Battoe.
Day One
Our first day at CHAT Camp was a great success all the way around. The parents and campers started out playing a game of musical numbers, an adaption of musical chairs, to get to know each other. Then they participated in their own special and exciting activities.
The campers played some very awesome games. They started off with Bingo and somehow almost everybody won at the same time! During their games the campers used their communication devices as much as they could. After Camp Director Beth told the campers about the rest of the week’s real plans, they wrote a Mad Lib about what was going to happen during the rest of camp. Thanks to Addison, it’s somehow going to snow in August, and Leo said we were going to play drums on Fun with Music Day! Matt said that we were all going to Onondaga Lake Park. While we’re there, we’ll see hippos and Graham thinks we’ll be said about that. Makenna said that someone would be a babysitter! We’ll see what happens? For the first part of the day the campers got to interact with three adult mentors who use AAC to communicate, Rick, Kara and Kate, and could see that there are grownups who talk like them. It was just a fun day all around.
CHAT means Communication Hope though Assistive Technology. It is for kids who can’t use their mouth to talk, so they use communication devices. CHAT is at SU. We play fun games, talk to each other, and tell jokes.
I love going to CHAT because I know we are going to have fun playing games like bowling, Uno, mastermind, bingo, Yahtzee, and even paint a little. CHAT is also cool because we use the small room when there is only one other person, and use the big room if there is going to be more than one person. This summer we are going to use the big room for a summer camp.
At my elementary school, I didn’t know anyone that had a communication device. I bet most of the kids who have communication devices don’t know anyone else like them. That’s why we have CHAT so they can meet each other.
“I am not sure Little Debbie even knows she is speaking when she talks in class.” was the note from my kindergarten teacher on my mid-term report card. To say communication is an important part of my life is an understatement. If I can’t say it, I write it. The words have to come out somehow. When my daughter Amanda was diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth, my first thought was “Will she be understood? Will she be able to communicate with her family and friends? Will we know what is in her heart?” To make matters more challenging, at 4 months of age, Amanda had vocal cord damage as a result of a surgery. This created the need for a tracheostomy tube to assist with breathing, and the use of a Passy-Muir Valve, http://www.passy-muir.com, to give us any hope of voice production. Armed with a little round plastic thingamajiggy, plans to learn sign language, and an almost two year old rarin’ to go, our journey to speech began.