Home  Michael  My Talker  AAC  Language: Core Words: 3-4 Yrs  Adult  Starter  GCV  Dolch

Words:  Mick  Mum  English  Teachers   Databases:  LAM & PeRT  Progress Monitor  LLL Flashcards

Language Activity Monitoring:

PF Data Logs: 060225  060226  060227  060228  060301  060302  060303  060304  060305  060306  060307  060308  060309  060310  060311 060312  060313  060314/15  060316  060321  060323

Date format = YYMMDD.

We use software from AAC Institute - LamTerm to uploads data logs (text files where every word uttered in a language sample is recorded time and date stamped) from Pathfinder to PC and PeRT (Performance Report Tool) performs 17 summary measures on the data collected - total no of words in language sample, % of words that are core vocabulary, no of word roots, no of complete utterances, mean length of utterance by word and by morpheme, average and peak communication rates... with appendices that include frequency and alphabetically ordered wordlists, showing how each word was generated e.g. by semantic compaction, single meaning picture, spelling or word prediction, a list of complete utterances.... PeRT reports are in HTML format.

The above LAM files and PeRT reports are a year old now and we hadn't completed the AAC Institute online Self Study programme so many of PeRT's features were not utilised appropriately due to our inability to use the software to its full advantage.

There has been a long delay in us getting back to as this school year has so far been spent making AAC materials - communication book, double-sided flashcards, word wall words and WWS Send Grids (talking pages) for the 500 most common words - and ongoing dialogues with all the professionals on Michael's team, trying to persuade them to become involved in teaching Michael his language skills and use his Pathfinder with him (as per SEN Statement and CAP Contract) and that he is not a cabbage - their excuse for no input.

We went to SENDIST Tribunal 27 February 2007 where we quoted school reports, school planners, Ed Psych's - anything we had found that positively stated Michael's abilities and progress, and we showed a DVD of Michael using his Pathfinder to talk, word process, send emails, surf the Internet, make a phone call... and presented the SENDIST Panel with expert opinion on the use of core vocabulary, teaching methods, the failings of standardised testing for children who rely on AAC, an outcomes measurement programme that is suitable for AAC children, transcripts of AAC Role Model presentations, evidence from our database re use of Pathfinder at home versus use of it at school, and three LAM and PeRT files - 060225, 060226 and 060305.

060225 and 060226 are the two we annotated to mark context and completeness of utterance for Michael's SLT and County Advisory Teacher for SEN to take to the AAC Results You Can Count On Study Day in Newcastle, September 2006, where Dr Katya Hill had invited delegates to bring along their clients' LAM so she could teach them how to analyse language by working on their clients data.

060305 is the full transcript of everything Michael said during the session that we filmed and from which we made the DVD we took to SENDIST. Michael's talk on our movie starts at the 11:24:12 utterance 'Argos' and ends with the 11:35:00 utterance 'early'. We edited it down to six minutes. The original videotape and the LAM data log are good to have as concrete evidence of the whole context of the session and of how much prompting, if any, Michael received.

In future sessions we plan to use two cameras so that over-the-shoulder shots of the Pathfinder can be edited into a movie, and again for concrete evidence, perhaps of any out-of-shot promting Michael is receiving.

It's hard to believe the lengths a child's team will go to in trying to prove how low his cognitive ability is, and to oppose a family's statment that the child can use a computer this way or that way - it makes you wonder just what is happening at school.

Turn your Data Logging on and keep records of your child's best use of language and communication aid - you never know when it might suit the powers that be to gather forces against him and call him a cabbage, perhaps to save them from having to do or learn something, or spend some money.

Data logging and language sample analysis are your concrete evidence of your child's ability and progress and also proof of who his best and worst communications partners are, e.g. is there a t ime or a place when the device isn't getting used at all?