TEAM SOPHIE18 years and counting …

Sophie McMullen & Nick Trapnell

Sophie …

•born in1993

•diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 10 months

•referred to physiotherapy at 10 months

•referred to speech & language therapy at 11

months.

Sophie’s VOCAs

Big Mack Health

Alphatalker (Stepping Stones on 8 then 32 Locations)

Health

Deltatalker (Stepping Stones on 32 Locations, LLL on 128 locations

Health

Vanguard (Wordcore) Own Funding

Vantage Lite (Wordcore) Education Services

ECO2 (Wordcore) Own Funding

Sophie’s Education:

•started an assessment placement at the

Children’s Centre aged 2 years

•started at Frederick Holmes School (for

children with physical disabilities) aged 3

years

•started at Hull College aged 19 years

The Communication Access Forum(CAF), looking at ‘whole picture’:

Sophie referred aged 2 years. CAF brief to assess and develop Access/Switching for:•Communication•Play and Leisure•Participation•Computer Access•Powered Mobility•Environmental Control

What did they do?The Extended Team:Their role included contributions to assessment, review & planning for Sophie’s development of communication and her use of assistive technology.

The Core Team:Their role included delivering programmes, maintaining equipment and supporting Sophie on a very regular basis.

Extended Team role:•For assessment and regular reviews•When something changed

Core Team role:Talked on a regular basis (SLTs based in school, working in classroom, weekly input from Rehab Engineer)

When were they involved?

How the teams changed:

Extended team:•has had fewer changes•still includes SLT, OT, Medical Physics, Physiotherapy•has lost teacher inputCore Team:•changed as Sophie assumed more responsibility•composition of team now controlled by Sophie

The Core AAC Team

S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy

O.T. Team(Fiona, Harold)

Class TeacherBob & Kumba

(Liberator)

RehabEngineers

(Barry & Dave)

Sophie’s P.A.s(Amanda,Sharon)

Helen (Mum)

Sophie

The Core AAC Team

S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy

Class Teacher

Bob & Kumba(Liberator)

RehabEngineers

(Barry & Dave)

Sophie’s P.A.s(Amanda,Sharon)

Helen (Mum)

Sophie

The Core AAC Team

S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy

Bob & Kumba(Liberator)

RehabEngineers

(Barry & Dave)

Sophie’s P.A.s(Amanda,Sharon)

Helen (Mum)

Sophie

The Core AAC Team

S.L.T. TeamJudith, Nick,Gail, Cathy

Kumba(Liberator)

RehabEngineers

(Barry & Dave)

Helen (Mum)

Sophie

The Primary Teachers ..

• Mrs Bean (“how many things can you do with a Big Mack and a switch?”)

• Mrs Hornby (switching & scanning)

• Mrs Broadbent (switching, reading & using the computer)

• Mrs Hunt (spelling & reading)

• Mrs Fowler (writing sentences & beyond)

The Secondary Teachers ..

Mrs Ribey

• “please use your Talker”

• “please use your Talker”

• started ICT GCSE dual award

Mrs Clarke

• ICT skills

• Independence skills

Powered Mobility:

• Smart Wheelchair

• indoor powered chair at 8 years (switch swapped manually between chair and talker)

• DX system with first indoor outdoor chair

The Negatives

• Struggle and frustration with Minspeak

S.L.T.s telling me to use my Talker when I didn’t want to!

Discovering Wordcore!!

The Positives

The PositivesBeing an AAC Ambassador for school:• Talking to Humberside Fire & Rescue Service (who

needed to know how people with communication impairments could call 999) about the difficulties encountered if you are an AAC user.

• talking to new school staff about using communication aids.

• talking to parents of children who may need to use communication aids about my own AAC journey.

• involved in reviewing new AAC hardware and software.• Involvement in planning activity days for children using

AAC.

Winning the CM Achievement Award in 2001!

The Positives

Carrying the Olympic Flame in Bridlington, nominated by Judith Chapman (SLT).

What helped along the way?

• Chocolate and biscuits

• SLTs being on site

• Continuity of staff (a lot of informal contact)

• Trust and honesty

• Humour and having a laugh

• Drinking coffee together

Why the coffee and chocolate?

•Because we didn’t always have the answer!

•As ‘experts’ we were happy to tell Sophie & Helen that we didn’t always know the answer!

•There wasn’t always one obvious way of doing something

•Sometimes things just went wrong

•Everyone had something to contribute•We worked to help parents to recognisethat they are ‘experts’ too•We looked at ALL the aspects of assistivetechnology from the beginning•Sometimes the best solutions were ideasthat emerged over time or as we debatedover a cup of coffee!

We think our Team worked because:

Sophie’s AAC Team

DaveBarryAndy

HaroldFionaDiane

SharonAmanda

AngelaSue

WendyWendy LLyn

Mrs Delasaux Mrs BeanMrs Broadbent Mrs HuntMrs Fowler Mrs RibeyMrs Clarke

AnnAndyKeithAndy WSteve

DannyLee

BobKumba

JaneJudithNickGailCathy

Mr BoyesMr Barcynski

Sophie Helen

Caroline

Nick Trapnell:

nick.trapnell@humber.nhs.uk