Into The School

Yesterday, I took PODD into Grace’s school. I did training with Grace’s Special Ed teacher and speech therapist. I taught the “How” to use PODD language with Grace’s Communication Book in the school setting. Wahoo! Instead of just having her Communication Book at home, it now will be with her at school, also. Now, Grace will have her Communication Book with her, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What a giant step in this journey. The way I presented PODD to the school was I focused on the Smart Partners. In a way, I almost took Grace out of the picture at this point. I did this because I really wanted the people who are going to help Grace navigate through the Communication Book to understand that learning PODD is not just about the icons. Traditionally, introducing icons was really about the icons symbolizing something. In Grace’s past, the icons often represented 1 single object. However, becoming a Smart Partner involves so much more than seeing & knowing a symbol. (Another post will have to be written about this concept.) A smart partner will read the environment, Grace’s temperament, body language, and gestures along with using the Communication Book. The beauty of PODD is the Smart Partner’s role and abilities. In addition, I want the Smart Partner to understand that right now they are the ones learning how to use the book. They are going to carry the book and use the book to communicate to Grace, to say what they, themselves, are wanting to say to Grace- not what they think Grace might want to say. We do not have a clue what Grace might want to say, we do not know what anyone else wants to say. I created a general time frame of “Phases.” The first phase will be all about Establishing Habits. The Smart Partner will learn to have the book with Grace and preferably within her reach at all times. The Smart Partner will use only the first 2 pages of Grace’s Communication Book, which have the “Quick Words.” And the Smart Partner will learn to use [ooops!] when they make mistakes. We all do and we all will make a ton of mistakes when we are learning to use PODD. As we are learning to use the book in these early phases, we are already modeling the use of Grace’s Communication Book to her. The key to Grace learning to use PODD, herself is the repetition, modeling, immersion, and seeing others communicate in a way that Grace will learn to communicate. The best example, Linda Burkhart gave at the workshop was that in the first year of a newborn baby’s life, we talk to the child for a whole year before expecting the child to speak back to us. That is why it is so great that Grace’s school is willing to take this on. Grace will now be immersed in the PODD language all day long, everyday. I am thankful to her school team who is eager and excited of the potential of helping Grace learn this language, just as I am.