Theme
6:16pm December 27, 2011
[Image description: A communication board consisting of a thick black paper with a white rectangle pasted into it. The rectangle is divided into a grid, with each square having a message. I’ll write each message out row by row: Row 1: “YES.” “Maybe.” “I don’t know.” “Sort of.” “Not really.” “Something else.” “NO.” Row 2: “Hello.” “How are you?” “I am doing fine.” “I don’t understand.” “You don’t understand.” “Could you repeat that?” “I pointed to the wrong message.” Row 3: “I like this.” “I don’t like this.” “Please ask me questions.” “I am not answering the same question you just asked.” “You are going too fast for me.” “Could you phrase that more simply?” “It’s nothing personal.” Row 4: “Read this aloud.” “I need help.” “I don’t need any help.” I am having trouble getting started.“ "I am spending energy suppressing an action.” “My actions are not voluntary.” “Please ignore my speech.” Row 5: “I would like to talk to you.” “I can’t talk about that right now.” “"I can’t understand a lot of sensory information.” “I am having trouble coming up with words of my own today.” “I need to do something but it is difficult to switch from what I am doing.” “What I am doing is not deliberately communicative.” “Please don’t try to explain my actions to others.” Row 6: “I don’t recognize you. Can you please explain who you are?” “I only use the wheelchair part-time. I can walk sometimes. This is not a miracle.” “I understand what you are saying but can’t make my body do what is needed.” “My body language and responses are unusual because of a neurological condition. I know exactly where I am & don’t need help.” “There are extreme inequalities in our communication on this topic. I doubt we could have a useful conversation on this right now.” “I would find it easier to do things if you weren’t in the room.” “I would find it easier to do things if you helped me with some part of it.” Row 7: “Please leave me alone.” “Leave me alone NOW.” “I am not a zoo exhibit. I will not perform for you.” “This isn’t about my feelings, please don’t individualize it.” “I am overloaded and really can’t handle more of this right now.” “I can’t educate people right now.” “I need to say something that’s not on this board.”] So… I just found this in my photos box when I was scanning tree photos. I don’t think I put it in there, someone else must have found it and stuck it there. (This is the fun part about having virtually no privacy… I mean seriously even my twat isn’t private.) I must have made it somewhere in the range of 2001 to 2003. I think I remember making it not just for situations when I had no other way to communicate, but also to make communication faster and to help me remember that I could say certain things. It was hell making it because there’s really a kind of expertise that goes into organizing these things and I don’t have it. I know I studied communication boards made by professionals. (Which always impress me with the way they lay things out, even the simplest ones are usually done really well.) I’m actually pretty impressed with myself that I managed it as well as I did, because this is really fricking(*) hard for me. But the things I added on that aren’t on the usual type… wow it sure shows me what kinds of situations I was getting into on a regular basis. Seriously. Just look at some of the situations that I’d have to have gotten into to make me think this is necessary. Anyway I’m putting this up in case anyone else wants to copy from it or something. I know how hard making this sort of thing can be. And even when you have another form of communication, like speech or typing, these sorts of things can be really handy for fast communication, and communication where you have to say the same thing over and over a zillion times and it wears your brain out coming up with the words, and communication where you’d forget you’re able to say something without something reminding you. . (*) That’s the second time my computer has tried to autocorrect a semi-vulgar term. It tried to change “twat” to “tat” and “fricking” to “frisking”. This is annoying.

[Image description: A communication board consisting of a thick black paper with a white rectangle pasted into it. The rectangle is divided into a grid, with each square having a message. I’ll write each message out row by row:

Row 1: “YES.” “Maybe.” “I don’t know.” “Sort of.” “Not really.” “Something else.” “NO.”

Row 2: “Hello.” “How are you?” “I am doing fine.” “I don’t understand.” “You don’t understand.” “Could you repeat that?” “I pointed to the wrong message.”

Row 3: “I like this.” “I don’t like this.” “Please ask me questions.” “I am not answering the same question you just asked.” “You are going too fast for me.” “Could you phrase that more simply?” “It’s nothing personal.”

Row 4: “Read this aloud.” “I need help.” “I don’t need any help.” I am having trouble getting started.“ "I am spending energy suppressing an action.” “My actions are not voluntary.” “Please ignore my speech.”

Row 5: “I would like to talk to you.” “I can’t talk about that right now.” “"I can’t understand a lot of sensory information.” “I am having trouble coming up with words of my own today.” “I need to do something but it is difficult to switch from what I am doing.” “What I am doing is not deliberately communicative.” “Please don’t try to explain my actions to others.”

Row 6: “I don’t recognize you. Can you please explain who you are?” “I only use the wheelchair part-time. I can walk sometimes. This is not a miracle.” “I understand what you are saying but can’t make my body do what is needed.” “My body language and responses are unusual because of a neurological condition. I know exactly where I am & don’t need help.” “There are extreme inequalities in our communication on this topic. I doubt we could have a useful conversation on this right now.” “I would find it easier to do things if you weren’t in the room.” “I would find it easier to do things if you helped me with some part of it.”

Row 7: “Please leave me alone.” “Leave me alone NOW.” “I am not a zoo exhibit. I will not perform for you.” “This isn’t about my feelings, please don’t individualize it.” “I am overloaded and really can’t handle more of this right now.” “I can’t educate people right now.” “I need to say something that’s not on this board.”]

So… I just found this in my photos box when I was scanning tree photos. I don’t think I put it in there, someone else must have found it and stuck it there. (This is the fun part about having virtually no privacy… I mean seriously even my twat isn’t private.) I must have made it somewhere in the range of 2001 to 2003. I think I remember making it not just for situations when I had no other way to communicate, but also to make communication faster and to help me remember that I could say certain things.

It was hell making it because there’s really a kind of expertise that goes into organizing these things and I don’t have it. I know I studied communication boards made by professionals. (Which always impress me with the way they lay things out, even the simplest ones are usually done really well.) I’m actually pretty impressed with myself that I managed it as well as I did, because this is really fricking(*) hard for me.

But the things I added on that aren’t on the usual type… wow it sure shows me what kinds of situations I was getting into on a regular basis. Seriously. Just look at some of the situations that I’d have to have gotten into to make me think this is necessary.

Anyway I’m putting this up in case anyone else wants to copy from it or something. I know how hard making this sort of thing can be. And even when you have another form of communication, like speech or typing, these sorts of things can be really handy for fast communication, and communication where you have to say the same thing over and over a zillion times and it wears your brain out coming up with the words, and communication where you’d forget you’re able to say something without something reminding you.
.

(*) That’s the second time my computer has tried to autocorrect a semi-vulgar term. It tried to change “twat” to “tat” and “fricking” to “frisking”. This is annoying.

Notes:
  1. nicocoer reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone
  2. withasmoothroundstone posted this