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I'm quite good at communicating basic things to people who know me well, using sign and gesture. But there's a lot more to really communicating than that.

Mum's made all sorts of resources for school to help my teachers use my Pathfinder with me, but somehow everyone says that I don't want to use my Pathfinder at school. Everyone who knows me knows that's not true.

When I don't use it it's because I don't know where all the words are. Or how to make 'proper sentences' without help.

I can use my Pathfinder at home because Mum helps me to find the words I need, and she works hard to realise what I am trying to say so she can help me to put it together in a meaningful way.

lots of children at my school can't talk. We all need this help.

There's plenty of information about how to work with children like me, how to set communication targets, plan therapy interventions, measure communication competencies, about which words it is essential to teach me, and how to do it.

every day in September and October I asked Mum to come to school and help me talk to my friends. And every day Mum put my questions in my home-school diary and came to school three times to ask.

i was full of hope at first

Mum was told to wait until a meeting 10 October before this could be discussed

as the weeks went by I felt more and more upset, frustrated and angry

10 October has been and gone and nobody talked with Mum about how I might talk to my friends

another meeting was 18 October but again no one talked about my pleas for help talking to my friends

i've stopped asking now

my 'lesson support profile' that came with the notes from these meetings says:

'can be very unwilling to use his Pathfinder on occassion, especially with other students. Has been known to bash it or throw it on table it staff insist he uses it'

how do they think it feels having so much to say and no one helping?

do they really think it is enough just to say 'use your Pathfinder'

what would they do if i said 'play me a piano concerto', and they hadn't had a music lesson, and they didn't have a music sheet?

would i report that they were unwilling to perform?

if you want to know the least you could do to help me click here

if you want to read about Leland, who was helped to talk to his friends click here

Me on my Pathfinder - including links to short video clips

Update: June 07: We went to SENDIST Tribunal in February and the Panel ordered that my teachers and speech therapist become 'sufficiently knowledgeable and adequately trained' in the use of my Pathfinder, that they use it to its full potential and my full potential, that they hire a 1:1 classroom support assistant to work with me full time from September on, and that intervention is needed 'at this stage' to meet communication targets from previous IEPs that had disappeared from this year's IEP.

The training is yet to happen, this year's IEP is yet to be written, the old (but useful) targets have yet to be implemented, etc.........!!!!!!!!!!!!ARGHHHHHHH