Hi Leslie,

Any chance of having him try 2 or 3 of the ones you mentioned.  I like all 3 but they each have a very different feel to use.  PALS prefer different ones.  Lately we have had a run on people being most accurate and experiencing least effort with TrackerPro.  I just got back from an appointment where my client was using the HeadMouse Extreme very well.  One nice thing about SmartNav is you can adjust sensitivity separately for horizontal and vertical movement.  So for example if a pt has great horizontal movement but limited vertical you can ramp up the sensitivity of the mouse to vertical movement. 

 

If the SLP who did the eval for the VMax does not have the head controled mice, the Dynavox rep should be willing to come out and do trials with the head controlled mice since the SLP will most likely order it through Dynavox (you said he had a VMax).  I don't know if they carry SmartNav yet but they do have the other two. 

 

Your client should not have to pay out of pocket for this item. The head controlled mouse is an accessory to allow him to access his SGD so it would be covered by any insurance that bought him the VMax (unless he is on hospice now).   You may want to tell the SLP that Dynavox even has a little one page report template for ordering just an SGD accessory. 

 

Your client will also need some fine tuning with what ever head controlled mouse he receives.  Mouse speed (located in the Windows control panel or head mouse system controls) needs to be adjusted for each person.  Tweaking this speed can make the difference between success and failure. 

 

Also, how will your client make selections?  If he can hit a switch fairly easily with any part of his body (except his head of course) then a switch should be ordered for him too.  Again the rep and SLP can help with doing switch trials. The alternative is dwell selection which is slower and more frustrating for most clients than switch selection. Dwell selection can be great though later if switch access becomes too difficult. 

 

Hmm..A little coffee and I ended up writing a novel on head controled mice.  Hope some of it was helpful. 

 

 

 

Amy

Leslie Ryan <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi all,
A patient of mine is looking into getting a hands free mouse to access his
computer and Dynavox VMax. He found the SmartNav by Natural Point online,
and seems to like it. Does anyone have experience with these, or advice on
which mouse to get? (HeadMouse, TrackerPro)
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Leslie Ryan
Patient Services Director

The ALS Association - Rocky Mountain Chapter
1201 E. Colfax Ave. Suite 202
Denver, CO 80218
(303) 832-2322
www.alsaco.org

Sincerely,

Amy Roman, MS, CCC-SLP
Augmentative Communication Specialist

Forbes Norris ALS Research Center
2324 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
P (415)600-1263
F (415)673-5184



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