Antoinette:

Check out this handout from Dynavox. Not all of it will be pertinent, but it may give him some ideas on how to speed up conversations by creating longer narratives before conversations. If the patient is wanting to have real conversations, perhaps setting up narratives would be the way to handle that. This might work for at least frequent topics and conversations that this patient may have with people (e.g., trips they have taken, topics of interest, recent movies he saw, etc.). It won't solve everything, but it may speed up some conversation. Also, I don't know if you patient is using eye gaze on the TobiiDynavox, but the NoDwell trial software might speed up communication if it works for him. I hope this helps!

-Kelly Neff, M.S., CCC-SLP

Speech Language Pathologist

University of New Mexico Hospitals

From: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com [mailto:xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of xxxxxx@improveability.com
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2016 11:15 AM
To: ALS AT Listserv
Subject: How to have more natural conversations with AAC

Hello AAC peeps,

I got the following question from a PALS that I would like to get additional feedback on:

"I am now effectively at a point where people can no longer understand me when I speak, except when I use individual words like yes. no, hungry, etc. But no sentences; they come out slow and slurred. I've taken the first step; I have a Tobii-Dynavox and am learning how to use it. But that doesn't address how to actually be part of an interchange with people and even with my wife. I feel like there's this person inside me bottled up that can't get out.

Maybe this is just a pipe dream but Is there any good literature that is available that would help me and other people to know how to achieve this?"

I already gave him some pointers on how to facilitate AAC use, such as letting people know if it is ok to guess and waiting for him to finish. I also shared with him some low tech options, but I would like to know others thoughts on this.

Thanks for your feedback.

Sincerely,

Antoinette Verdone, MSBME, ATP

Owner, Rehabilitation Engineer

ImproveAbility, LLC

Office: 512-522-1705

Cell: 512-497-6026

Email: xxxxxx@improveability.com

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