Big Macs for Mac

Big Macs for Macayla! No, not the double-decker cheese burger from McDonalds. It’s a big, green button. Macayla’s therapist has accomplished something that none of us have been able to do. She has taught Macayla a new skill! We have been frustrated and sad, because Macayla has not been able to learn new skills but only able to lose skills. We tried to teach her sign language and she only picked up one sign (“more”) and that was over a year ago. She cannot do that sign anymore. We have tried using flash cards to teach her a new system of making choices. This would give her the option of choosing a card with a picture on it that represented something she wanted. For instance, she would be able to choose between a card with a picture of the TV on it and a card with a picture of a slide on it. She only mildly warmed up to that system and that was short-lived. We tried using Big Macs which are large, round buttons, usually brightly colored, that are designed for kids with speech issues and coordination issues. These are helpful because the whole top of the device is the button and this makes it easier for the children to activate it. They can contain recorded messages so that when the button is pushed the message is heard. They can also be made to activate just about any electrical device such as toys, TV, fans, music, etc. Macayla has never gotten into them until last week. This is the switch device I referred to in the last entry. Macayla went to therapy this week and she immediately recognized the Big Mac (which in this case was a smaller, yellow version) and tried to activate it to go down the slide. In other words, Macayla did not have to be retrained to activate the button to go down the slide. She learned a new cause-and-effect skill!! As with saying a sound for the word “go”, this may be hard for some to appreciate, but it is huge. Macayla learned a new system to communicate and used it. That’s exciting!! It may only last today, but we will take it. Now, we look to getting some Big Macs for Mac!