Non-verbals can now communicate

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit my aunt who has Lou Gehrigs Disease. My aunt is such a fighter and never as let anything take her down. She would bungee jump in her 60′s and travel the world until she got Lou Gehrigs. She now can’t move or talk. She has however given me an amazing gift to tell others about and that is the gift of communication.  She cannot speak but still has an extremely sharp mind. She can still whip my butt in scrabble without even speaking.

One of the ways she communicates is with a transparency with letters and numbers typed out on it. I sit across from her with the transparency between us. She looks at the letter she wants to use to spell a word and I move the transparency around till our eyes meet. Whatever letter she is staring out when our eyes meet I say aloud. She continues on if it’s right or rolls her eyes if I got it wrong.

Non-verbals can now communicate

She then looks at me and looks at a pair of glasses. I thought she was having trouble seeing the transparency so I picked up the glasses and realized there was no lens in them. I thought will maybe she is going for the smart look today and thought it was odd for her to wear them. She looked annoyed at me when I questioned her so I put them on. She then began to move her head around and I thought this was a bit strange until my mom told me to look at her computer screen. As she moved her head.

                                                                                             I was totally amazed. She didn’t even have to use her one finger anymore to try and move the mouse. The camera and glasses say Head Mouse on them so this is what she bought. I asked her if her insurance covered it and she nodded.  I couldn’t think of a better invention for her. Then I started to think about all of the other people who could use these types of devices. I think of the non-verbal children I know who are very smart with Autism and wonder if this could help them as well.

I couldn’t keep this to myself, I had to let other know about it.  Please be sure to share this article with anyone that you feel could benefit from it.

For more information on Head Mouse you can visit http://www.orin.com/access/headmouse/