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Memories of a 'Good Day' with First Words

It is with great pleasure that I tell you this story even though it took place a while ago. I still remember the feeling of the event but unfortunately do not remember the names of the individuals.

A family who lived on the other side of New Jersey came to visit during the Open Access drop-in hours to see how technology could benefit their son. Their son was autistic and about the age of 7.

For lack of better terminology, their son was locked in his own special world. He did not seem to pay attention to his family or notice that I was in the room. He did, however, go from one side of the center to the other very quickly looking at everything in the room through a stare that would indicate to most people he was unaware of his surroundings.

I brought him over to a computer with a TouchWindow and Laureate's First Words program. I demonstrated how to touch the window to select a picture. From that point on, he selected the correct picture every time as we went through the program.

I looked up at his parents and they were crying. They said they never knew their son was capable of knowing or selecting these words on his own. We all had a good cry as their son continued to demonstrate his capabilities at the computer using Laureate's software programs.

It was a good day.

Joanne Castellano
TECHConnection
Shrewsbury, NJ