A Dynavox Autism Success Story

The following is from a mom per my request for Dynavox and Autism Success Stories. We are getting more out of the Dynavox daily and have been using it to play games as a family. It is truly a great tool, but a lot of work.

My daughter got her Dynavox V about three years ago this coming May. I have to agree that programming it is a lot of work. We have four people assisting us with using the device and programming it. We have our SLP, our Dynavox consultant/trainer, our daughter's aide and me....mom. I've spent up to nine hours in one day just on programming. It has been very useful in many situations like going on vacation, going to the doctors office, going to the dentist and/or orthodontist. She uses it to tell me what she did at school today and what she worked on for the day. We also use it for helping her to remember all the steps with setting the table, ordering at restaurants, grocery shopping and using a list, using the ATM machine, and many many other things. She uses it to play games as well...solitaire is one of her favorite games. We are always thinking of more way to use it.

However, I think the biggest drawback is it's portability. It's very heavy and isn't easy to lug around school all day. It's not real practical during PE because of it's size and weight. My biggest recommendation would be for Dynavox to find ways to improve the size and weight of the device to improve it's portability. It would also be nice if the black carrying case had a built in pouch for the white dynavox pen.

Anyway, I could write a lot more but just wanted to give a little feedback on our experience with the device.