I'm Mom to the most amazing Autistic child. I decided to take matters into my own hands after watching my own son struggle to make progress with the current AAC (speech) devices available.
They were expensive, confusing, monotone and came with subscription fees that I'd end up having to pay until the end of time. Put simply, it wasn't good enough...
When I learned that my child was a GLP or a Gestalt Language Processor - it was mind-blowing to me. So many things I'd seen him do just clicked into place! At first I was a little angry: why hadn't I been told that right away when I got the Autism diagnosis? What do I do about it and why wasn't something being done!?
I later learned GLP is a relatively new concept even within the Language and Childhood Development world and we're learning so much about it every single day. I got to learn about Gestalt processing firsthand as I watched my son grow and develop. I saw firsthand what worked and, more importantly, what didn't.
It's estimated that the majority of Autistic kids learn language using a gestalt method: which is basically a style of language acquisition where individuals first learn language by memorizing whole phrases or "chunks" rather than individual words. Children who are Gestalt language processors begin developing language using memorized sentences or scripts rather than single words.
GLPs need meaningful phrases to help them in later stages as they begin to break down (or mitigate) them into small chunks/single words. That brings me to the heart of this book: I saw how much my son adored any and all sound books but the drawback was: none of them had "useful" or functional phrases and many were just the sounds like an oink or moo.
The few that did have phrases were great but again, they weren't functional or useful phrases he could use to get his needs met. So I thought - why isn't there something that has it all?
I wanted to make a book of phrases your little one can hear over and over again -(repetition and consistency for the win)! Phrases that can be broken down easily over time and possibly help accelerate your little one's language development.
I wanted to make a book that is not only interesting because it's intonation-rich but also one that has graphics that go beyond a basic stick figure.
I was sick of trying devices that were expensive and easily broken, required a prescription and insurance to purchase, and came with mandatory subscription fees.
I needed something that my child could pick up as easily as one of his beloved sound books and begin using immediately and I knew I wasn't alone. Thousands of parents need relief in their journey. So many of us have to piece together something that works for our kids because what we need doesn't exist yet.
I wanted to make a book that could not only change the way we communicate with our kids but could change the trajectory of their language development.