Did she REALLY say a full sentence?

I have spent the last hour going through each and every button on Molly's "talker" that I kept home with me today to update and add photos. Plus I wanted time to REALLY peruse the iPad mini device to see if Molly in fact wrote an entire sentence, UNPROMPTED mind you, on her device on Friday.

I got this text photo from Bailey who works with Molly one or two days a week.

The lighting is not clear but in the top left corner you can make out the sentence that Molly used "Please: turn on the music". Bailey was occupied with another client and Molly came over and said that!

I'm telling you people this is a MIRACLE!! Molly is my one word kid.  She hardly uses verbs much less "on" and "the"! Look, she even started the sentence politely! And for her to initiate with a person that was ignoring her is another huge milestone that her teachers have worked on with her for a long time! She self advocated for something that she wanted and that is a BIG step for kids on the autism spectrum. It's all coming together.

I'm realizing that I have never shown you a picture of her talker, have I? Touch Chat is a communication app that you can now download onto an iPad. She loves it as she looks like the other kids using her iPad AND she can watch videos, listen to music, peruse FB, etc all in one place! Technology for a non verbal kid is such a gift in this day and age!

Each button on that top row will lead you to other pages that you can customize. So on her "people" button we have various groups: family, speech therapy friends, school friends, teachers.. all with a picture of the actual person and their name. The device speaks it when you push that button. The "Question" page links over to who, what, where, when , why etc. We've also added lots of social questions like "What is your name?" "How old are you?" "Do you have any pets?" etc. The other 80 icons are similar in that they link to other pages with endless opportunities to customize.

A truly efficient communicator could get all of their needs met with this device. Molly has the technology at her disposal it's her apraxia and sequencing challenges that limit her from filling us in on all her wants, needs and thoughts. But never say never, right?

I asked both Molly's teacher and speech therapist if there was a pre programmed key on her device that says "Please turn on the music". They both said "not that I know of". And I can now vouch for that since I have touched every button and can't find one that would have made that easy for Molly to say. Even though I can't get her to replicate it at home....it looks like she in fact said it. And I'm so excited!!

I just hope she doesn't say "Please stop writing about me" next. :)