Meeting Aftermath and a Lack of Workouts

So the meetings on Wednesday were productive. Our 2nd meeting was with the Assistive Technology/Adaptive Communication professional from the school district, a group of speech therapists, Ryan's teacher and my wife and I.

It started out pretty contentiously, with the lead ST throwing around her qualifications and trying to establish a position of authority. While I respected her experience, I let her know that, sometimes, new technology comes out that needs to be trialed.

A bit of background... We have purchased hardware and software for our children to use as Adaptive Communication devices in school, to help them communicate in their special ed and regular ed classrooms. The software runs on the ipod touch platform. Typical AC devices cost ~$4K; the total cost of the solution we are proposing is ~$450. (The net cost to the district is $0 as we have purchased both the h/w and s/w.) The issue is that no one in the district has any experience with the platform, so they have been dismissing it as ineffective.

After I stroked egos for a bit, we persuaded the team to allow us to use the device in a trial with my youngest son (in parallel with his current device) to see if it is something that will meet his needs. My wife was an integral part of this as, along with being able to talk in more emotional terms, she cries at every meeting and is able to draw on the sympathy of the women. Works pretty well when we need it.

So we start the trial in a week and should see positive progress shortly after.

The net result for our sons' is positive, and that's what is most important.

It did result in workouts Thursday and Friday being postponed but I'll get some work in today and tomorrow and we will be back on track for Feb 1.