Alexa Lien – A Girl With a Lot to Say!

Our daughter, Alexa, was born with Down syndrome, so we expected a speech delay. We decided early on that we would do everything we could to help her communicate. In addition to speech therapy, we began focusing on sign language, using videos and modeling. While her sign vocabulary took off, it was apparent that it still couldn’t keep up with all she wanted to say. Around the age of three Alexa was also diagnosed with oral apraxia, so her speech therapist recommended we have her evaluated for a communication device.

At three and a half, we got that evaluation and the recommendation for a Vantage with Minspeak® (she now uses the Vantage Lite, also with Minspeak). What a difference a device makes! We quickly dove into lessons on the device (for both her and us) and she learned that it could be her voice.

At first, yes, the device seemed like a toy to Alexa, but she is happy to use her device when we were having trouble understanding her. It’s not uncommon to hear one of us say, “I can’t understand you. Please use your talker to tell me.”

We heard the opinion from some that having the device would delay Alexa’s speech further. But we took the chance and found quite the opposite to be true. We’ve seen Alexa make huge strides in her speech – both verbally and with her device. The device has modeled speech for Alexa. She often uses the device to say something, then uses her voice to say it.

The device has also helped to boost Alexa’s reading. She sees the words and hears the talker say them. Plus, the device has helped Alexa with learning to build sentences. She uses it almost daily when doing her journal assignments at school. In fact, at the beginning of the school year, we even switched to an 84 Unity®overlay because the 45 Unity™ overlay just didn’t fit her vocabulary needs.  She has a lot to say!

We have made sure Alexa has many good role models with her device as well. At school, once a week her speech therapist works on increasing Minspeak vocabulary with her and another child with the same device. We also attend a monthly ‘user group’ for folks who use devices. Seeing even adults using Minspeak really seems to peak Alexa’s interest. In addition, we’ve chosen a habilitation provider who also uses a Vantage Lite so Alexa gets even more modeling.

With Alexa having apraxia, we understand that she will have times throughout the rest of her life where she is difficult to understand. We are thankful that she already has a way to get her message across without being stifled by her speech delays.

 

 

Here is the language that Alexa’s generated, word-by-word, as she answered questions from her brother and mother.