Susan is 33 years old and uses a Dynavox MT4 to aid in her communication.  Attached is a short Susan she decided she would like to write that includes the use of her device at home with her dogs! Animals are a huge motivation for her and she dearly loves their company.  She came up with the entire story plot from beginning to end and it is a true story of how she interacts with her dogs that she felt she wanted to share.  She only needed little help to modify some of her run-on sentences.  Susan has intellectual disability and uses the Dynavox to help her communicate when she has difficulty expressing herself verbally.  With the Dynavox she is able to communicatie more rapidly and clearly under pressure, and is better understood by people who are not familiar to her when she uses it to supplement her verbal speech. She told her mother that she wanted to ‘use her mouth’ to tell her story too.  Her story was written with her verbal telling as well as her use of the Dynavox to find the words she was trying to say, but could not immediately express.  Her mother then wrote the words as Susan either said them to her verbally or used her device that she calls her ‘machine’ as the story reads. 

Annie, Wake Up!

            Waking up my Beagle Annie on her pillow and blanket is hard.  I shake her on her back bone to wake her up.  I use my machine (Dynavox MT4) to say “Annie, wake up Annie”.  After she hears me, she gets in the floor and scratches her belly and ear drumlets.  Next, she gets her toy and wants to play.  She plays so much it makes her tired and she goes back to sleep.  I have to wake her up again! I use my machine again to say “Annie, Annie wake up.”  Sometimes I use my mouth too to say it.  My machine helps me to find the words I can say with my mouth too.  It doesn’t matter how I say it- with my machine or with my mouth, she just looks at me and goes to sleep again!

            When Annie won’t wake up, I go talk to my other dog, Lucy the lulu (I call her that sometimes) who stays outside.  I open the back door and she comes inside with me and with Annie who is still asleep.  She looks at me when I sit on the sofa beside Annie.  She wants me to pet her on the head. Then, Annie wakes up and wants me to pet her too.  That’s how I wake Annie up!