From the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas:A mom knows a miracle when she sees one.
Especially when it concerns her son.
Two months ago, Vera Word penetrated the autistic world of her 15-year-old son, Jonathon, using — of all things — a cell phone.
The device’s text messaging capabilities have opened up a new method of communication with her son that is working better than anything she’s tried before.
“It was genius,” agreed Jenna Daily, Jonathon’s teacher in Harrell Accelerated Learning Center’s autistic program. “We’ve all been super-excited. The cell phone has really opened up the possibilities.”
Word and Daily have tried many communication strategies with Jonathon, with Word’s efforts dating back to the first time she began noticing some problems in Jonathon’s perceptiveness when he was two years old.
Back then, the toddler wasn’t talking. He wasn’t running. When she dropped him off at a nursery and then returned to pick him up, even if she was talking or calling his name, he wouldn’t realize she had returned until he visually caught sight of her.
The disconnect is a common sign of autism.
Over the years, Jonathon never learned to talk.
Vera used many of the communication techniques parents use with hearing-impaired children. For years, she carried a keychain of pictures with photos of stairs or a bathroom or food; Jonathon could point to the picture that represented his need.
She also kept an alphabet of letters on the refrigerator when Jonathon was 7 years old, which he used to spell out words.
A smart little guy, Jonathon knew the meanings of words. But could he read? She was never completely sure, since he couldn’t speak and read aloud to her.
The family started him on a touch-screen computer provided by the Helen Farabee Center about a decade ago. He learned how to navigate that computer and then, eventually, to use a mouse.
In recent years in Harrell’s Accelerated Learning Center autism program, he operated the class computer and also learned to use a Franklin, a handheld children’s computer that allowed him to spell out his requests.
But it was cumbersome, and childish, and if Jonathon made a typo or misspelled a word, it required him to start over.
Vera was dissatisfied. The day-to-day communication with her intelligent but autistic son was still stiff and sketchy. She was always guessing at what he was saying, taking the clues he gave her and filling in his blanks. Even if showing pictures worked, she feared that not everyone in his life — such as a future employer — would be willing to accommodate a pictures-only communication style. There must be a better way, she thought. But what?
Then Vera bought herself a new cell phone. As she was learning to use it, she came up with an idea: Why not teach Jonathon to text-message? All he would need would be a cell phone that was appropriately programmed. It didn’t need to be connected to a phone line. She envisioned him texting her a message on its small screen, then showing it to her to convey his thoughts.
She had already turned in her old phone to Verizon, so she called the company to retrieve it. When that wasn’t possible and the Cellular Self sales rep learned what she wanted it for, they donated a phone to Jonathan. His sapphire blue phone, with its large screen and slide-down QWERTY keyboard, is a Verizon Blitz.
Vera taught him how to move through the series of screens that would give him a blank screen where he could type in a message.
One Sunday night two months ago, Jonathon was playing games on his computer. After awhile, he came over to his mother, cell phone in hand. He held it out so she could read it. On the screen was typed this message: “Big Pac Man ate Blue Ghost.” Vera glanced over at the computer screen and knew immediately what he was trying to tell her.
“It was the first time he told me anything that I didn’t have to fill in the blanks!” she said. It was a Eureka moment. She was so excited that — even though it was a weekend evening — she called Jenna Daily, his teacher in Harrell’s autism program. She knew Daily would appreciate the triumph.
Daily did. She even wondered why she didn’t think of it.
What Daily likes about it is its age-appropriateness, she said. It’s exactly what any other teen-age boy would have, making Jonathon fit in more closely with his peers, rather than stand out. “It says, ‘I may sound different, but I am just like you. I can communicate, I’m intelligent, I have opinions, and I am a teen-age boy.”
Plus, it’s portable. As part of Harrell’s program for Jonathon, Daily aims all her instruction at increasing his communication skills so he can move comfortably among others in stores and restaurants, even when his parents aren’t around to translate what he needs.
The cell phone’s text message is now his voice, one that everyone can understand. “There’s always been text-to-speech software, but it hasn’t been portable and effective for us,” she said. But technology is always improving, and Daily wonders now if there might be such software available on an iTouch or another cell phone.
“It’s a never-ending experiment,” Daily said.
The cell phone is such a friendly tool that she has great hopes for it. She’s passed on this discovery to the Wichita Falls Independent School District’s speech teachers, who have rejoiced over its success and brainstormed how they may use it with other children.
“We want (students like Jonathon) known for who they are and not their disability — this is Jonathon Word, who also happens to have autism,” Daily said. “That’s what we want.”
Jonathon’s mother just wants her son communicating effectively, not only with her, but with others. “We want him to be able to communicate for himself,” she said.
Recently, Jonathon has been texting full sentences to Daily during class time. He’ll text, “May I play the Wii?” or “Cake, please.”
That excites Daily so much that she longs to grant his every desire. “When I get the full sentence, it’s like, ‘Wow. (Cake? Sure.) Let’s give you the biggest piece!’”
