2008 MANY STORIES ONE VOICE ONLINE COLLECTION

Tyler Bartlett, Age 11, United States

Click HERE to download the story in Microsoft Word format.  

 

I have Moebius Syndrome and use a speech generating device to communicate. I am a good signer and I began to learn Minspeak on an Alphatalker when I was three and a half years old. I now use Unity 84 on a Vantage.

I used my Vantage connected to my laptop computer to write my story. I write using a mix of Minspeak, spelling and word prediction.

The photo shows me working at my desk at school. I use a lot of technology ;my Vantage, a laptop computer a scanner and a printer. As you can see, I need a pretty big desk!

 

 

Not All in One Day

by: Tyler Bartlett age: 11 grade: 5

One fine summer's day Tyler's laptop computer broke and he desperately needed money so he could purchase a new one before the school year started. Tyler had an idea, so he called his friend Rosemary who was a speech pathologist and said, "I need money for a new laptop, so I was thinking that maybe I could help you teach Minspeak."

Rosemary told Tyler about a little girl named Lucy, who was four and wanted to learn Minspeak all in one day before she started kindergarten in September. Rosemary had told Lucy that it was impossible, but Lucy was very determined to reach her goal.

Tyler remembered the box of icon toys Rosemary had used to teach him Minspeak and had an idea to teach Lucy how to use Minspeak and help her understand why she couldn't learn it all in one day.

The next day Tyler went to the CDC conference room to meet Rosemary. When he got there, he discussed his plan with Rosemary. After explaining his plan to Rosemary, they went to talk to Lucy and introduce Tyler to her. Rosemary pulled out a big box of icon toys that Tyler was going to use to teach Lucy how to use Minspeak.

              

When Lucy saw the toys she asked, "Why do we need toys?" "It is for helping you to learn what the icons on your Vantage look like and what they do," said Rosemary. "I can't possibly learn all that in one day," exclaimed Lucy. "Exactly!" cried Tyler. "When I first learned Minspeak, Rosemary and I, took it one step at a time, but it will be well worth all the effort and hard work. Besides you will learn lots in one day."

Tyler got to work teaching Lucy the beginner icons in Minspeak like Mr. Action Man…   who has all the action words which are also called verbs. Lucy was so proud of herself for learning the first icon so quickly. Tyler's favourite icon was the rainbow and the truck together…  because all the colours would appear if you hit the icon once, but if you hit it twice, it contained all forms of transportation. Lucy enjoyed learning about the icon with the apple and the bee… . If you hit the icon once you can find all sorts of food, and, if you hit it twice you will find all sorts of containers.

Over the next few weeks, Tyler and Lucy worked very hard learning new icons and other features that Minspeak performed. When Lucy started kindergarten she showed all her new friends what Minspeak could do and by that time, Lucy was one of the many kids who knew Minspeak like the back of their hand.

As for Tyler, he earned enough money to purchase his new tablet laptop.

Rosemary was so impressed by Tyler's good teaching skills, that she offered him a part time job helping her teach Minspeak to new students.

The End!