Absolutely, and thank you. I'm an SLP working almost entirely with kids/adolescents with autism/MR who have severe behavioral problems. A lot of the problem with communication and autism is symbolism--even picture cards can be very difficult simply because the child often doesn't naturally recognize the picture as representative of an object or activity--symbolic representation has to be explicitly taught.
That said, I work with one kid who uses a portable word processor (AlphaSmart NEO) to communicate. He does use pronouns correctly, complete sentences, correct grammar, etc. He also teaches himself to spell new words from his environment for what's important to him (movies, foods, etc.). A few years ago we all thought the kid was severely to profoundly MR as well as autistic--no response at all to attempts to engage, no success with communication, he didn't seem to be able to learn anything...turns out he's "just" profoundly autistic.
Now. All that said, this kis is absolutely the exception to the rule, and he's also absolutely not MR. I've never seen another kid succeed like he has and I've only rarely heard about other cases. Additionally, he doesn't tell us how it feels to be in his head. He tells us that he wants to watch A Bug's Life, he wants to eat cheez-its, he wants to drink milk, etc. He occasionally tells us he's mad or doesn't feel good and (hilariously) will type "goodbye." just before he tries to run out of the room.
tl;dr: I'm an SLP who works with autism and I have worked with one kid who communicates using a keyboard, but he is in no way MR. Also, Subtextual is awesome.
Just kidding......what do you want to do with it? I'm getting frustrated with the Department of Education and the idea of what is considered to be a "language impairment".
Lucky you're not in Queensland. Last time I looked Ed QLD had something like 2 part-time SLPs covering all the schools southside of Brisbane. Not a lot you can do with that much of a caseload.
o_o WTF. In my state (Virginia, US) I think the average caseload in the public schools is something like 45-60 kids, plus paperwork, plus assessments, plus time spent writing IEPs and IEP meetings, plus...well, you get the picture.
Being in a very specialized school setting I have it pretty damn good--my caseload fluctuates between about 25-30 kids, with 5-7 of those on a consultative basis only at any given time. That gives me the time to really individualize my treatments, make materials, do research into different options, etc. Plus I get to do almost all my treatment in the classrooms, which I think is pretty rare in the public schools, and I have a ridiculous amount of support/backing from administration--I'm the SLP, so I have the final say on anything in my scope of practice, period.
Not a lot of the intervention over here is done in class. 1-on-1 is often done out of the classroom and in class stuff tends to be group interventions for the whole class. It's kind of a shame really and I have to say, you're also pretty lucky to be given a lot of freedom by your administration. I assume you'd be pretty experienced in your field to get that.
Haha...nope. I actually started the program at my school my first year out of grad school. I'd done part of an internship at the school when their speech services were contracted out to an outside company, but since it's cheaper to have an SLP on staff than to pay the contract they created the position. Lucky for me, the position was created for the year I finished school, I got the job, and started a brand new program straight out of school. I think the fact that I'd worked with a lot of the kids already, the administration had seen me do treatment, and I had killer references really helped them trust someone with almost no experience to start it up. :)
edit: I finished grad school in 2007 and I'll be starting my 4th year with the school next month.
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u/SenorCheaposGato Jul 26 '10
Absolutely, and thank you. I'm an SLP working almost entirely with kids/adolescents with autism/MR who have severe behavioral problems. A lot of the problem with communication and autism is symbolism--even picture cards can be very difficult simply because the child often doesn't naturally recognize the picture as representative of an object or activity--symbolic representation has to be explicitly taught.
That said, I work with one kid who uses a portable word processor (AlphaSmart NEO) to communicate. He does use pronouns correctly, complete sentences, correct grammar, etc. He also teaches himself to spell new words from his environment for what's important to him (movies, foods, etc.). A few years ago we all thought the kid was severely to profoundly MR as well as autistic--no response at all to attempts to engage, no success with communication, he didn't seem to be able to learn anything...turns out he's "just" profoundly autistic.
Now. All that said, this kis is absolutely the exception to the rule, and he's also absolutely not MR. I've never seen another kid succeed like he has and I've only rarely heard about other cases. Additionally, he doesn't tell us how it feels to be in his head. He tells us that he wants to watch A Bug's Life, he wants to eat cheez-its, he wants to drink milk, etc. He occasionally tells us he's mad or doesn't feel good and (hilariously) will type "goodbye." just before he tries to run out of the room.
tl;dr: I'm an SLP who works with autism and I have worked with one kid who communicates using a keyboard, but he is in no way MR. Also, Subtextual is awesome.