TEAM SOPHIE 18 years and counting … Sophie McMullen & Nick Trapnell
Dec 30, 2015
TEAM SOPHIE18 years and counting …
Sophie McMullen & Nick Trapnell
Sophie …
•born in1993
•diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 10 months
•referred to physiotherapy at 10 months
•referred to speech & language therapy at 11
months.
Sophie’s VOCAs
Big Mack Health
Alphatalker (Stepping Stones on 8 then 32 Locations)
Health
Deltatalker (Stepping Stones on 32 Locations, LLL on 128 locations
Health
Vanguard (Wordcore) Own Funding
Vantage Lite (Wordcore) Education Services
ECO2 (Wordcore) Own Funding
Sophie’s Education:
•started an assessment placement at the
Children’s Centre aged 2 years
•started at Frederick Holmes School (for
children with physical disabilities) aged 3
years
•started at Hull College aged 19 years
The Communication Access Forum(CAF), looking at ‘whole picture’:
Sophie referred aged 2 years. CAF brief to assess and develop Access/Switching for:•Communication•Play and Leisure•Participation•Computer Access•Powered Mobility•Environmental Control
What did they do?The Extended Team:Their role included contributions to assessment, review & planning for Sophie’s development of communication and her use of assistive technology.
The Core Team:Their role included delivering programmes, maintaining equipment and supporting Sophie on a very regular basis.
Extended Team role:•For assessment and regular reviews•When something changed
Core Team role:Talked on a regular basis (SLTs based in school, working in classroom, weekly input from Rehab Engineer)
When were they involved?
How the teams changed:
Extended team:•has had fewer changes•still includes SLT, OT, Medical Physics, Physiotherapy•has lost teacher inputCore Team:•changed as Sophie assumed more responsibility•composition of team now controlled by Sophie
The Core AAC Team
S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy
O.T. Team(Fiona, Harold)
Class TeacherBob & Kumba
(Liberator)
RehabEngineers
(Barry & Dave)
Sophie’s P.A.s(Amanda,Sharon)
Helen (Mum)
Sophie
The Core AAC Team
S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy
Class Teacher
Bob & Kumba(Liberator)
RehabEngineers
(Barry & Dave)
Sophie’s P.A.s(Amanda,Sharon)
Helen (Mum)
Sophie
The Core AAC Team
S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy
Bob & Kumba(Liberator)
RehabEngineers
(Barry & Dave)
Sophie’s P.A.s(Amanda,Sharon)
Helen (Mum)
Sophie
The Core AAC Team
S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy
Kumba(Liberator)
RehabEngineers
(Barry & Dave)
Helen (Mum)
Sophie
The Primary Teachers ..
• Mrs Bean (“how many things can you do with a Big Mack and a switch?”)
• Mrs Hornby (switching & scanning)
• Mrs Broadbent (switching, reading & using the computer)
• Mrs Hunt (spelling & reading)
• Mrs Fowler (writing sentences & beyond)
The Secondary Teachers ..
Mrs Ribey
• “please use your Talker”
• “please use your Talker”
• started ICT GCSE dual award
Mrs Clarke
• ICT skills
• Independence skills
Powered Mobility:
• Smart Wheelchair
• indoor powered chair at 8 years (switch swapped manually between chair and talker)
• DX system with first indoor outdoor chair
The Negatives
• Struggle and frustration with Minspeak
S.L.T.s telling me to use my Talker when I didn’t want to!
Discovering Wordcore!!
The Positives
The PositivesBeing an AAC Ambassador for school:• Talking to Humberside Fire & Rescue Service (who
needed to know how people with communication impairments could call 999) about the difficulties encountered if you are an AAC user.
• talking to new school staff about using communication aids.
• talking to parents of children who may need to use communication aids about my own AAC journey.
• involved in reviewing new AAC hardware and software.• Involvement in planning activity days for children using
AAC.
Winning the CM Achievement Award in 2001!
The Positives
Carrying the Olympic Flame in Bridlington, nominated by Judith Chapman (SLT).
What helped along the way?
• Chocolate and biscuits
• SLTs being on site
• Continuity of staff (a lot of informal contact)
• Trust and honesty
• Humour and having a laugh
• Drinking coffee together
Why the coffee and chocolate?
•Because we didn’t always have the answer!
•As ‘experts’ we were happy to tell Sophie & Helen that we didn’t always know the answer!
•There wasn’t always one obvious way of doing something
•Sometimes things just went wrong
•Everyone had something to contribute•We worked to help parents to recognisethat they are ‘experts’ too•We looked at ALL the aspects of assistivetechnology from the beginning•Sometimes the best solutions were ideasthat emerged over time or as we debatedover a cup of coffee!
We think our Team worked because:
Sophie’s AAC Team
DaveBarryAndy
HaroldFionaDiane
SharonAmanda
AngelaSue
WendyWendy LLyn
Mrs Delasaux Mrs BeanMrs Broadbent Mrs HuntMrs Fowler Mrs RibeyMrs Clarke
AnnAndyKeithAndy WSteve
DannyLee
BobKumba
JaneJudithNickGailCathy
Mr BoyesMr Barcynski
Sophie Helen
Caroline