This is the first time in her life that Jess has had access to a formal communication system and it has been possible with the help of Grid Player App (her “talker”)

Jess is a 30-year-old young lady who loves hanging out with her family and friends, swimming, plane watching, train trips, a good cappuccino and a glass of wine. She lives at home with her parents and attends a community day program. Jess lives with severe physical and intellectual disability resulting from a congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Jess’s parents and carers are committed to helping her to live her best life; maintaining and building her skills and enjoying varied experiences.

Jess can walk short distances with a walker and support from her carers. She uses a wheelchair for longer distances and to access the community. She has a stair-lift at home to help her get up and down stairs. Jess does daily sessions on her exercise bike at home (much to her dismay!) to keep her body active and mobile.

Jess uses a combination of vocalisations, verbal approximations, facial expressions, gestures and some key word signs to communicate. She is unable to communicate verbally. Jess relies on other people to interpret her needs, wants, thoughts and feelings. She has difficulty communicating spontaneously and with complete freedom as she is limited by the knowledge and familiarity of her communication partners.

Jess receives multidisciplinary support through The Benevolent Society:

• A physiotherapist to maintain her strength and mobility
• An occupational therapy to support her safety and independence at home
• A speech pathologist and a therapy assistant to support her to communicate with freedom

The Benevolent Society's speech pathologist has been working with Jess and her family to implement Grid 3, a communication software, and the Grid Player app on her iPad as a communication device. We call this her “talker”. This is the first time in her life that Jess has had access to a formal communication system.

We also enlisted the help of a therapy assistant who is supporting Jess once a week to use her talker at her day program.
Jess is learning to use her talker to put combinations of words and phrases together to tell us what she thinks, how she feels, to tell us about her likes and dislikes and what she wants. This week, when mum said she was having beef, rice and veggies for dinner, Jess promptly responded with ‘I like’ + ‘chips’. Jess loves to navigate through the categories to talk about the people in her life and her favourite activities. Things that she wouldn’t have been able communicate about otherwise.

Jess promptly responded with ‘I like’ + ‘chips’. 

With continued support, we hope to give Jess the tools and the power to better participate in the community, socialise with her friends and family, to express her thoughts and opinions, and to make decisions in her own life.

* Names and images have been changed to protect members of the family