Tell me More!

Maggie is always working on her conversation skills. Because she uses a communication device, back and forth communication is very difficult. Maggie is limited by phrases already in the machine or by the small sentences she can construct. The pace of the conversation is generally very slow; and those who even understand that she is trying to converse sometimes do not have the patience to wait for her to find the response she wants. Often the appropriate response is not programmed into her device, and then the wait is even longer for her to figure out a way to respond.

Accordingly, the teacher and speech therapist and I decided we needed to make pages on her device that might lend help her hold an actual conversation. It is a work in progress. Her homework every day is to have a conversation with someone and really try to use these pages and switch to constructing sentences when she has to. Yesterday I decided to sit at the computer while we conversed and I wrote the entire exchange down.

Maggie starts the conversation. My responses – or anything I say – are in parentheses. Toward the bottom, she is constructing the sentences. The “…” means she is finding the right words. FYI, the following took about 10 minutes.

(Hey Maggie, we need to do your homework. Why don’t you start a conversation with me?)

Have you seen any movies lately?
(Well, I haven’t been to the movies in a long time, but I watch movies on TV. How about you?)
That’s horrible.
(It’s not horrible, I wouldn’t use that word. It’s fine.)

What do you like to do on weekends?
(I like to go to the park with you and dad and go to the museum)

Tell me more.
(What do you want to know? We hang out for a while, and then walk over to Golden Gate Park, sometimes with the dog, sometimes without. You’re with us, so you already know.)

How was break?
(What break? I NEVER get a break.)

Laughs. “Tell me more”
(There is nothing more to tell. Mom’s work ALL THE TIME)

Laughs. Are you doing anything tomorrow?
(I am going to keep working on our financial information. I will be sitting at the computer all day. It is boooring)

Laughs. Tell me more
(There is nothing more to tell without boring you to death)

What are you doing for Spring Break?
(Well, I don’t really get a spring break, now do I?)

Who did you go with?
(Who did I go with where? That doesn’t make sense. Can you ask another question?)

Laughs uproariously.

Long break while Maggie searches through her computer pages

Mom…is…good.
(Thank you).

Dad… is… good.
(Dad will be happy to hear that but he’s upstairs right now.)

I ... am …smart.
(You are, Mag.)

Mom is good, Dad is good, I am smart. [note, once she creates the sentences they are saved on the top and she can use them over and over again until she clears it]

{Clear} I... am … good.

Mom … come here.
(Ok)

I am good… mom.
(Right-o, kiddo)

Maggie is beyond delighted with this exercise. Obviously she has a long way to go, but the way all of us learned to converse was by DOING it. She is behind the 8 ball not only because of her disability but also because she has not had the experience of participating in conversations. People talk TO her or AT her but almost never WITH her.
The phrases like “tell me more” are great because it allows the person to be engaged in the conversation, but Maggie uses it instead of finding her own things to say. Therefore, we will continue these conversations.

Every kid should be able to talk back to her mother. .