I’ve been meaning to post for awhile, but have found it difficult to coordinate the time, energy, and words, which I guess is a great example for this post.

In May 2017 I had a fall. I broke both ankles and incurred some serious spine damage which was not diagnosed until I recovered from ankles and concern was raised why I wasn’t fully recovered. In response to this I had effects from my general anaesthetics and painkillers.

I had (have) some cognitive impairment. My cognitive impairment got me thinking about the adults with disabilities that I support and the underappreciation of the cognitive impairments that they might have.

Here were some of the impairments that I noted (please note, essentially I am noting my conscious incompetence and possibly missing features of unconscious incompetence):

– short term memory losses (did I say that already?)

– reduced auditory processing (I didn’t get hooked on SBS Nordic crime for my love of all things high Northern hemisphere, but because I could only understand written subtitles and not speech on TV)

– word finding problems (I had to call up my son’s name to remember my next procedure – the Curtiszone injection)

– inability to distinguish target vs field sounds (a hatred of being in a room in which more than one conversation was happening – and an overwhelming desire to scream “shut upppp!”)

– oversensitivity to noise (such that just closing my eyes helped me escape and find a happy space).

– a tendency to just answer yes to choice questions (“what do you want for diner?” “Yes”)

– problem solving requiring a systematic approach and longer time

– a desire to break down in tears in difficult situations (let’s not talk about trying to find black shoes for school concert and Curtis having to say in the middle of KMart “mummy, get off the floor”)

– a reduced tolerance for anything irritating (and a tendency for most things to be irritating)

– a rigidity of thought and need for clarity (and sorry, what does the term AAC really mean?)

– a tendency to be a much nicer person when enough pain killers were given to numb the soul.

So the last 6 months have given me a deeper understanding of these impairments.

I reflect that we often presume that the people we support have clear thinking minds, but what if they have any of these thing above or any other cognitive differences? What is the long term impact of a neurologically based intolerance? What is the impact on “social inclusion” if you feel overwhelmed by the sounds, sights, and movements? What judgements are made when a person can’t remember what you just told them? What happens if we presume that lack of response is due to lack of comprehension, when it might be being in too much pain to process or respond?

I am lucky; for me, these things should pass. But expect an (oh shit what was the word) excavation, excalation, getting biggerer of them in the next month as I enter surgery again next Monday. But do spare a thought for people that you know who have cognitive differences…

Ps. Post the bloody word to me if you know what it is

I posted this on my personal facebook today and feel that it is fitting to post the same here…

Have you got 20 minutes today for me – well not for me, but for something that is at my core. Can you watch this youtube – it captures what has driven me for the last 22 years (probably longer actually) – true presence and connection with people who do not use and may not understand speech. Introducing Alison and Suez Proctor – thank you for putting into words and actions all that drives me each day – where human value is not determined by ones capacity to use words or symbols. https://youtu.be/NKzaUuixIQ8

With great thanks to Mark Krause, we’ve just posted up the 45 minute interview discussing VIG and a very successful case study.

I’ll be interested to see how people use this. It could be used in staff training, individual professional development, or there may be other uses.

Let me know what you think.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYyQ2xxJsic]

Today I find myself feeling angry and indignant. I’m not sure if the feelings are justified or if they a symptom of my being out of step with “best practice”.

In a speech pathology and AAC Facebook group, a practitioner posed the following question: “with non verbal students (adolescent age) who do not currently use any AAC functionally, would you start them out with the phases of PECS or start with learning core words with core word chart?”.

Respondents answered with their various supports to go for PECS or core words. Stepping out on a limb, I replied “Start with a relationship using their non verbal communication skills – honour what they can do now – and then build (while still honouring their capacity for human connection using nonsymbolic means)”.

A few weeks ago a story appeared in the newspaper about a man who had a severe disability and his mother. She talked about how he reacted to various activities and events. She talked about her love for him, and the difficulties of life long care. Noticeably, many social media respondents talked about how he should be given a way to communicate his own story, that this therapy or that therapy would enable his voice to be heard.

UNICEF recently posted it’s Inclusive Communication Module. The videos and resources contained great ideas for including people with disabilities. A voice over with video footage of a girl arranging plastic letters on a whiteboard said “she spells out, ‘I understand everything’”. The message is to see people with disabilities as capable.

On Facebook another image is posted, “Non verbal does not mean non intelligent or quiet”.

But what if a person is not intelligent? What if they are not waiting for the latest therapy to unlock all of their hidden thoughts? And what if a person has much deeper difficulties with connecting with people than can be addressed with PECS cards?

What if they have engaged in the interventions for years without success? (Yes, some may retort that the intervention hasn’t been correctly implemented, implemented long enough, and that it is not the fault of the student but the fault of the teacher).

What if the person can use pantomime, gesture or facial expressions to engage with people near to them? Or if their communication is through their change in body tension and alertness?

Do the Facebook, social media, and education package messages say that it is not acceptable to be a person who does not use or understand speech or any other symbolic communication form – that a person has only achieved communication when they’ve developed the use of symbols?

Are we revisiting the 70s when the only acceptable communication viewed by speech therapists was speech? In the 2010s, is the only acceptable communication to aspire to is speech or symbol use?

I am not saying to give up on communications interventions, or to swing the other way and not remind people that many people who can not use speech do have good understanding; I am arguing that we must be careful to first honour the ways a person can communicate and be especially careful to not present the arguments of capability in a way that devalues those who may not have such capabilities or intelligences. People communicate in many different ways.