Switches!

I am very excited to report that Kai is now working with non-verbal communication devices (switches). I will be adding many more posts on this topic as I learn about it in the future. So far the therapists have given us instructions on how to make our own switch toys. If anyone has made them before I would really appreciate some advice on which toys work the best. Kai’s first communication switch is called a step by step that he taps with his foot and it says “Hi, how are you?” He just lights up with it. There are four different recordings you can use but for his first run I figured I would just use the same message for each until he gets an idea of how it works. The hospital is also letting us use some switch toys (a bubble machine, penguin slide and a remote control lady bug). It is awesome to see Kai playing all on his own. Now I just need to get going on his own switch toys and devices for home.

I also came up with a new idea that I really wish I would have thought about sooner. We have been in the hospital for a long time and many of the nurses and Dr’s get attached to Kai. They visit him and write little messages on his white board. Today I went and bought him a little journal with a cute little pen that has a K on it and I set them down on his tray with a note that reads: Came by to see Kai? Please leave a little note! Thanks. Now I can keep all the little messages for him instead of having to erase them every time.