ATHABASCA – A local family is hoping a customizable speech software will help their six-year-old learn to speak after they were able to raise $1,000 to pay for it and the iPad required to run it on a tight deadline.
Jadyn Deguay is a regular, outdoorsy kid. His mom, Elissa Schinnell, said he doesn’t like to stay in the house, so their days are spent on little adventures in the outdoors — whether it’s a trip to the pool, or a nature walk, Schinnell said she’s always looking for ways to keep him engaged.
Unlike most kids his age, Jadyn isn’t speaking yet. He has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and while it doesn’t seem to have limited his ability to understand communication, it has hindered his verbal skills.
“He learns like every other kid, it’s just the communication that he’s always really struggled with — mostly the expression of communication, and not so much the reception,” said Schinnell.
To help address that, Jadyn and his mom are working with a speech therapist who specializes in cases like his. One tool she recommended is a software called TouchChat, a program that links words to photos, and helps users format sentences as he goes.
“It basically shows you a grid with different words on it, so you just touch the word. If you’re trying to say, ‘I want…’ you touch the I want, it will go to all the options, so they can pick their favourite places, people, food, whatever he wants to say,” said Schinnell.
The software isn’t cheap — even on sale, it’s going to cost Schinnell $300 — and since Jadyn requires so much attention, the family is on a fixed income.
That’s where the Athabasca United Church came into the equation. Schinnell, her mother, and Jadyn have been attending the church for years now, with Jadyn starting out with his grandmother at the age of two, and the small community was happy to help.
“We really believe in empowering people to come up with their own solutions,” said United Church Rev. Monica Rosborough. “It was really important to me to empower Elissa, and boy, was she ever empowered. She did the bulk of the work, she went around to put up the posters, she went to local businesses, and she would go around to collect the bottles.”
Rosborough said she knew if people saw Elissa putting in the work, they would want to help, and the community did just that. Initially, she had estimated the church would need to gather around 200 bags of bottles to reach their goal, but thanks to some generous anonymous donations, they had enough money after just 30 bags.
“Jadyn is part of our congregation, and he is loved. He’s the official/unofficial greeter of the spaghetti supper.
“He was going up to everybody at the supper and going tap, tap, tap to get their attention,” said Rosborough before pantomiming the frenzied wave any parent would recognize.
Schinnell is hoping the next year will help catch Jadyn back up to the norm for his age — the contract with the speech therapist runs until next August, but she said the skills he’s working on should set him up for success down the road.
“They give you the toolkit, but you need to continue on that road with your child afterwards,” she said.
