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| Here is my story and how the Communipack was
developed. My name is Deb Boucher and I live in Coquitlam B.C. I am the mother of a 12 year old boy who loves life, is non-speaking, globally developmentally delayed, hypotonic, and mildly to moderately mentally handicapped. |
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When he was 2 years old his doctors told me that he
would never sit, crawl, walk, run, or talk. When I heard this news I
felt like the bottom of my world had fallen away and I almost gave up,
but then I looked into his eyes, and I knew that together we had enough
fighting spirit that we would prove them wrong. Now, years later,
through many tears of joy and frustration, I am proud to say that he is
able to do almost all of the above, except speak. Because I vowed to him, when he was little, that I would help him to be as typical as possible, my heart ached because even though we worked so hard, he still had no speech. We tried so many different products but none of them worked well enough. |
| Out of sheer frustration,
determination and years of developing, I have created a
multipurpose communication pak called a Communipack. Before he
had the Communipack, he was becoming very frustrated as he always needed
me to translate for him, and a lot of the times, I would be guessing at
what he wanted and how he felt. We tried other products on the market but none of them worked. Now he can make a lot of his own choices in life, and communicate a wide variety of things. This independences and control has really boosted his self-esteem and made him a much happier person. The Communipack is used with Velcro backed picture communication symbols, photographs, or printed words (not included). My son is now able to "tell" people his needs, wants and ideas, order meals from restaurants, grocery shop etc. by sharing the picture symbols, photographs, and printed words with others. Behaviour issues are drastically reduced as a result of being able to communicate in a more positive manner. The visual scheduling system has alleviated the stress and frustration for all our family members. We always set it up together so he sees how his day will unfold and can make choices where it is appropriate. It works well even for less preferred activities as the schedule dictates our day, not me anymore. He doesn't argue with it as it doesn't argue back. We never end our day with a less preferred activity as he needs to see that there is something else to look forward to after this activity is completed. The ring binder in the Communipack is wonderful as it allows you to add or remove the pages as necessary. The fabric pages work great for conversation, sentence building etc. |
| For my son's Communipack, I have sewn a small elastic
loop on one and he uses this for his "grocery page" ( I don't sew this
on to the pages that we sell, as not everyone would want to use it for
this). He stores this on our fridge with a magnet next to my written
list. When we run out of grocery items that I know he can handle (not
eggs), he will place the symbols (which we store on his Communiboards)
on his grocery page. When we go shopping we put his fabric page back
into his Communipack. When we arrive at the grocery store we remove his
"grocery list" from his Communipack and hang it on the buggy (over the
section that holds the key ) and he is responsible for getting those
particular items. Once the items are placed in the buggy he removes the
symbol and places it on the back of the page so he knows what items are
left. Once the page is empty, we put it back into the Communipack to be taken home again. Grocery shopping used to be a nightmare with displays being knocked over and items dropping off shelves now he loves to go to the store as it not only gives him some responsibility but it is also teaching him a life skill as well. |
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