By Brandon Williamson, PRC-Saltillo Blogger
Right now, I mostly use my device to talk with my parents and close family, like my sisters, brothers-in-law and my nieces and nephew. I use my device to talk with the staff and my friends at my day program called All-R-Friends, and I talk with my therapists, my doctor, and close family friends. Something I want to work on is using my device to have more conversations with people I know, like people at my church, my buddy ball teammates, my big extended family, and even more talking with my own mom and dad.
I also would like to work on using my device to have more conversations with people in my community that I don’t already know, like grocery store employees, people at the movie theater, at pools, at the bowling alley, etc. When I am out in my community, I mostly use my device at restaurants so that I can order my own food. I love to order my own food. My favorite thing to order is a cheeseburger with extra onions and extra pickles and tomatoes and lettuce. If I do not use my device out in my community, I am not able to speak and get the things I need. I am so happy when I talk with other people and ask for what I want and need.
To be honest with you, sometimes I get lazy with using my device. My family agrees. My dad actually agreed with this as I was typing it. Sometimes I also get busy. It happens. Something that can help you use your device more often is thinking about who you want to talk to that day or that week, talking with other people that you didn’t think about, getting yourself involved in your community and even programming longer stories or messages as icons in your device to quickly share longer stories. I’ll explain that more in another blog.
To get more involved in the community, I started using my device to read scripture at mass at my church. Everyone enjoys talking to me afterwards and telling me I did a good job. I also like to go to new places. I recently went to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio and talked about the airplanes and how great of a place it is. It was huge. I had lots of fun going to a new place.
I want to keep talking more with others like my big family, people at my church, and people in my community. I encourage you to keep talking even more to other people at home and out in your community.
Communicators In Action - device, aac, communication, family,