Braeden loves sharing news of his days out and in the past our support workers have taken photos on their phones and then sent them to me in the evenings. Recently, Amelia suggested we get Braeden his own phone. A friend kindly gave Braeden a used iPhone 8 they were no longer using and it’s been great. Braeden’s support workers are happy because they are not using their phone storage for lots of photos and videos and Braeden has access to the photos instantly when he gets home. When I mentioned it to Braeden’s speech pathologist she was thrilled because she saw the opportunity to expand Braeden’s communication by having he and his support workers place the photos and videos into the program Pictello. We already had Pictello on Braeden’s iPad and we’ve now downloaded it onto his phone.. When he gets home he has a story to share about his day. It’s instant and it’s a great way of him sharing his daily adventures and travel news simply by using his iPhone and Pictello.
Sharing daily adventures and travel news with an iPhone and Pictello
Throughout the day Braeden’s support workers take a range of photos and videos that tell the story of his day, including highlights, people he meets and any food treats he buys.
Braeden’s support workers assist him in choosing photos and video to add to the program Pictello, which is an easy to use story making program with a text to speech function.
It’s really wonderful for us to be able to share in Braeden’s news from his day.
It’s also nice for Braeden to be able to share with his support workers what he’s been doing when he hasn’t been with them.
Once we get the Pictello story on Braeden’s phone, we then share it to his iPad which is an easier way for Braeden to access it. Braeden is able to turn the pages of the story on the iPad and share his news with us.
Our number one goal for Braeden is communication and it’s been wonderful to see the difference individual support has made to him achieving this goal. Having his support workers focused on communication is seeing Braeden’s skills improve. Throughout the day they are able to use a variety of ways to allow Braeden to communicate from his picture exchange system to his recordable button, Little Step-by-Step Switch. Given Braeden is out in the community every day, there’s plenty of opportunities for him to have highly motivating choices.
