The Northcott Athletics Carnival

We made our third annual trip to the Northcott Interschool Athletics carnival at the State Sports Centre at Homebush last week.
It's a great Athletics Carnival where kids with a physical disability get to compete against others. The kids events are broken up into categories depending on their level of ability and reliance on equipment. Missy stepped up this year to compete against Primary Kids Yr3-6 together and competed in the category where kids have a high dependence on their walking frame.
The day started with an early rise,leaving home by 6am, along for the trip was Miss H with her video camera, the school banner and H-Ho with her cheering voice ready. Arriving with time to spare, Missy kept checking the programme and was saving her energy just cruising the stadium in her powerchair. As it neared her 25 m sprint, she jumped into her walker and couldn't wait to go to the marshaling area. She stood on the line so fiercely determined to win, the whistle went and she was off, the kids in her race all had Kaye Walkers(a less supportive walker) and were older but... she looked across the field, to see she just had the lead at the 15m mark and that was enough to make sure she just kept her legs pumping to take out the finish tape and be the winner.....
Next she competed in the Bean Bag race, a race that requires them to run to a hoop and drop a bean bag in it and run back to the start and do this three times and then sprint to the finish line. Missy did really well with the bean bags and was heading to the finish line when she kicked a shoe off, a worried look came over her face but she keep running and finished third. Missy went on to compete in the powerchair slalom, shot put and took part in the combined school relay team.

We had a wonderful day , thanks to Aunty K and cousin M for coming to cheer, it's a day when Missy's can really shine and her competitive nature is in overdrive.
The following day at school Missy was called to the front of the assembly with the results read out, Missy smiling away, so proud. It concluded with the school singing her the Bravo song.

"Our School's got Talent"

Missy's school SRC recently conducted a competition called "Our School's got Talent" where students could perform anything they like. Performance heats were held over Term 2 and the Grand Final was held last week.
Of course any sort of performing was up Missys alley. So Missy and her friend put a dance together to Miley Cyrus's "Hoedown" they performed wonderfully in the heat to win a spot thru to the Grand Final.
The Grand Final had so much excitement surrounding it, as it was attended by the entire school and many parents, as it was held during our open day for Education Week. The girls had been practicing their dance moves during their lunch breaks with Miss H who does a wonderful job with all the extra curriculum stuff. Missy and her friend recruited another member to the dance group and they throw on the wigs and plenty of bling and took to the stage full of excitment and confidence and danced away to "Crazy" by Hannah Montana. Missy danced in her walker and I was so proud of her confidence to have a go.
Once the performances were over and an assembly was gathered, the results were read out, you could tell from Missy's face that she had no doubts that their act would be winning. Well...... as no places were given just 4 winners in the Junior & Senior Section... they read out three winners in the Junior and Missy's face had started to transformed to a worried look......and then the 4th winner was the "Crazy girls"... well she and her friends took off out the front, jumping out of their skin and smiles that couldn't be bigger.
Fun all around...

Dynavox V-Max trial

After trialled the Eco2 and now the Dynavox V-Max, I have a clear preference for the Dynavox. Yes it is more familiar to us but allot of the little annoying features of the Dynavox DV4 have been improved on the Dynavox V-Max.
I will attempt to list them;
There is an improvement in the ability to view the screen when outside with the addition of a light ambient sensor on the front.
Speakers are located on the top front part of Dynavox which allows for better projection.
The is a UNDO button, so in our case if the clear button is accidentally pressed after Missy has spent 10 minutes typing up a sentence , it can be retrieved, the undo feature also applies the page editing that you make a mistake with.
It's an integrated computer/Dynavox, hence providing more Independence to send emails, research the web etc.
Now has the option to read E-Books on screen and games.
Improved and more choices of voices.
Has Interaact Pages, so it shows different pictures of situations appear like a doctors waiting room and you press on an area that you want to ask about, ie press the clock and a popup appears with relevant questions about the time....how much longer? So it provides numerous platforms and encouragement to ask the relevant questions to the situation.
We feel at this stage in Missy's literacy development we didn't want to take her over to a Minspeak system that the Eco2 provides along with a few features that I didn't like on the Eco2.
So I guess we will move onto a Dynavox V-max, our Dyanvox DV4 has served Missy well for five years now, allowing opportunities for language development, computer access, social contact, pre-school and school transition and importantly being seen and expected to contribute to conversations and learnig as she has a means of communication and the ability to demonstrate what she thinks is valuable.

Back to School

Missy was pleased to be back at school, after a pretty ordinary school holiday break. H-Ho got a chesty cold and then passed it on to Mum and Missy. So combined with the terrible winter weather and Mum being on tissue patrol, it was a long holiday break spent indoors. We did manage to get to the movies once where the kids went their own way, Missy went off to see Karate Kid with Mum and H-Ho to see Marmaduke with Dad. Missy came out the movies practising her Karate chops , she must have looked a sight driving her powerchair out of the dark room, legs going flat out with karate kicks and the left arm swinging around while the right arm drove her chair. What a larikin she is? While H-Ho came out talking about Marmaduke doing a bottom burp in the bed.
We are trialling the Dynavox v-Max at the moment and I'm pretty pleased with it, alot of the little annoying things about the Dynavox Series 4 have been addressed. Anyway I will cover this more in my next post......

Quick catch up

Hi, Been so busy here, my blogging has been lagging.
Now in the full swing of school holidays, the kids are enjoying sleep-ins. We had a recent trip to Sydney for Missy's check up at the CP Clinic, all reports came back very good, Hip x-Ray continue to be stable and she maintains her full range of movements. We are lucky to stay with Aunty H again when we visit Sydney, it makes the trip allot more comfortable.
We won't be attending the ABR Clinic being held in August in Sydney, as we are still going well with the exercises we were given in April.
We have finished the Eco2 trial and should have the Dynavox V-max arriving next week to trial.
Cheers

Loving the Neater Eater

Well the Neater Eater has arrived in our house and everyone is loving it especially Missy. Over the years we have continued to look for ideas in particularly when it comes to eating and drinking that provide independence. We have the sandwiches and drinks now sorted with TAD's help(see other post). However dinner and breakfast were time consuming and didn't provide the opportunity for Missy to be independent.

The Neater Eater made in the UK is a eating device that greatly assists with controlling arm movements and works on a spring system that is very adjustable, so the distance back and forth and the height to the mouth. So after moving the spoon into the dish and you have your desired amount on it will lift by it's self and move to the mouth position. The plate has a small lip around it to assist pick ups and it has stand underneath that fits into a hole making it very stable but can be turned to find the best bit of dinner or the most tomato sauce.
Dinners have been transformed with Missy now getting hers first and not having to wait for me to sit down with both our dinners, so I can start feeding her. No longer is there one mouthful for me and one for Missy with both our dinners going cold. Missy is highly motivated by food and the independence this machine provides while enjoying her favourite past-time EATING is awesome.
Of course they are an expensive piece of equipment, with accessories they retail about $4K however I was in the right place at the right time and a few trips to Sydney, I managed to picked up a demo for much less.
Video attached is Missy eating some slippery peaches in her first week of practice.
Her determination to be independent is inspiring.

Hectic Life continues

Life continues to run at a fast pace since returning home from the Gold Coast. Following that trip I have done two Sydney trips, just quick down and back day trips, to pick up some sale equipment including a neater eater - what's a neater eater? well watch this space i will take some photos of Missy using it and post it very soon.

We are continuing our trial of the Eco2 Communication Device at the moment.

H-Ho has celebrated her Birthday with a friends party, a family dinner and cake at Pre-School.

While the pace of our household picks up, the temperatures we are experiencing are dropping dramatically. Winter has hit with a top today of 5 degrees. Beanies and scarves are standard school uniform around here.

Home from Spectronics Conference

The Inclusive Learning Technologies was held last week over four days. Previously attending in 2008, the Conference was once again very well organised with speakers from overseas, a jam packed schedule with 6 concurrent sessions all day, various supplier stalls, and 750 people from across the globe enjoying the Marriott Surfers Paradise venue.
I probably didn't get as much out of it as the last conference but then again we are another 2 years down the track of providing technology options for Missy. It cemented some ideas that had previously been forgotten, to now try again, it provided some further information on the latest very expensive communication devices and where we may now head as Missy's Dynavox DV4 will soon be out of warranty as she has had it for 5 years now. We are currently trialling the Eco2 and in August will trial the Dynavox V(5) Max which by then we would have waited 11 months just to trial the device. By the time it's trialled and applications written the Dynavox VI(6) might be out.
We were given a thumb drive with lots of informations including all the presenters presentations with a CD to follow. We picked up a Step by Step communicator that has three levels,just a little quick system to use for greetings and other news that is easy to press when she driving around. http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/product/step-by-step-communicator-with-levels-enhanced . I also ordered some handy little talking brix, an updated version of a single message switch that don't run on batteries, we find these really handy by the toilet and other areas where you need to call from. http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/product/talking-brix-communicators

Cross Country Course Conquered

This week saw our school hold it's Cross Country Carnival,in a local national park. This was our first experience as Missy has now turned 8. The school didn't bother asking if Missy would like to go, they knew the answer to that.... she will be there!!!! The question was how could Missy have an inclusion experience when her mates would be running across and down hills over the banks of dams and up a hill called heartbreak hill.
I suggested maybe she would like to be the photographer for the carnival, well that met with a luke warm response, and we concluded that will have to see the course.
Upon arriving, she was quick to get in class lines and head off to walk the course... hey!!! better take your anchor man.....DAD. I didn't want to look as I'm a bit parniod about tipping the chair and stayed behind with H-Ho.

Well.... they made it back in one piece from the look and see, not without Dad swinging off the back of the chair to stabilise it. They was times she had fears about driving but she persisted knowing Dad was there.

Anyway hoping now that she had seen the course, she would take up the option of taking the photos...well this time it met with a ..you have to be joking mum, I'm racing.
So off to the starting line she went, poised for the start, edging on the line, the 8 and 9 yrs girls were off. Within 200 metres they were out of sight heading down the hill, it didn't deter Missy she just keep driving with all of us in tow, Mum, Dad, H-Ho and Miss H.
We made it to the bottom of the hill - what a relief! now up the next hill. Missy steps up to 4th gear and H-Ho strides out with her and well, Mum is huffing and puffing, falling further behind. As we head up the hill the older kids who started later are making their way pass Missy offering words of encouragement thru their breathlessness "Keep going Missy" You are doing really well" "Way to go" and like all the kids crossing the finish line Missy and Heidi were cheered by their mates for conquering the course.
Oh! the joys it brought Missy to complete the course and just being part of what everyone else does, she expects nothing less and deserves nothing less.