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Project: More Core Please

More Core Please addresses the issues of equipment provision and the right follow up support for children with physical disabilities and communication needs, by taking a dramatic proper gander at their lives both before and after they receive assistive technology for mobility, environmental control and communication, and before and after the importance of teaching the children normal everyday vocabulary is realised by their providers and facilitators.

Central government recently (2002-2006) injected £20,000,000 into provision of assistive equipment. Now it is the turn of the local authorities to implement its use and provide support.

Scene 1:

It's lunchtime. The dining hall is Oliver Twist style. The teachers' table is on a raised dais at the head of the room. (Soundtrack: King Crimson: Elephant Talk: 'Burble, banter, bicker, bicker, bicker, balderdash, ballyhoo, Bruh Hah Hah...' or maybe just hubbub.)

The children are being fed by their carers.

(Soundtrack: Pink Floyd featuring Stephen Hawking: Keep Talking. The song is a dialogue, and in this movie speech bubbles for the carers' side and thought bubbles for the childrens' side of the conversation:

Carer: 'Why won't you talk to me?' Child: 'My words won't come out right' Carer: 'You never talk to me' Child: 'I think I should speak now' Carer: 'What are you thinking?' Child: 'I can't seem to speak now' Carer 'What are you feeling?' Child: 'I feel like I'm drowning' Carer: 'Why won't you talk to me?' Child: 'We're going nowhere' Carer: 'Where do we go from here?')

Scene 2:

Still in dining room, same setting,

(same soundtrack but Stephen Hawking's voice cuts in:

'It doesn't have to be like this. Everybody must keep talking' and the music builds up crescendo-ish)

At this point in the movie (manna from CAP), the children's wheelchairs morph into powered wheelchairs, communication aids and remote access environmental control units appear from nowhere, or are given out like holy communion, in time to the music. The children now have the power of speech, mobility, and environmental control.

But they won't be able to say much until they have learned where those all important everyday words - Core Vocabulary - are stored on their communication aids.

(Note. This is a major issue. Many non-speaking children are not given these words - some have to make do with just a few functional nouns like Juice, Toilet and Biscuit, and that's all they get for years, or, in contrast, others are given long lists of curriculum nouns to learn, but many aren't given access to core words - see Miss Piggy's PDA, Core Drawers homepage, and the Language and Vocabulary pages for more on Core vs Fringe Vocabulary).

Scene 3:

A little boy called Michael Reed goes up to the teacher's table and uses his communication aid to say 'Please Miss, I want some Core'.

Scene 4:

Similar ructions to what poor Oliver Twist experienced... The Head is outraged at the child's audacity. Her staff has provided lists of lesson nouns to be programmed into his communication aid. What more could he possible want!

Teacher table collapses and roof caves in, in response to the Head's fury. She is injured. She loses her sight, the use of her hands and her speech in the accident.

Scene 5:

The children want to help her. They try to imagine what she is trying to say (thought bubbles again). They try their best to find useful words on their communication aids for her.

(Soundtrack: The children rhyme out all the lesson specific nouns they have learned for their teachers on their communication aids, rather like a rap song verse).

But lists of lesson nouns don't make sentences and this doesn't help the head to communicate her thoughts any more than it has helped the children to communicate theirs. Now the head's thoughts are shown in thought bubbles.

Scene 6:

Alison McKenzie and Janet Hinchcliffe visit school to see how everyone is getting on with their new CAP equipment. They bring a young blind Role Model with them, called Andrew, who knew some LLL icons before he lost his sight when he was five, and who accesses the LLL core vocabulary on his Vanguard via scanning, with auditory prompts.

Andrew immediately realises the problem and talks to the Head, and she is able to signal 'Yes' and 'No' to his suggestions. They soon find out what she needs to say.

(Soundtrack: The Beatles: A Little Help from My Friends - Reason for choice of song: Michael’s Mum noticed one day that 'Tune' was the only word from this song’s lyrics that wasn't stored in her son's talker by default, whereas most of the words school had given her, to teach her son on his talker, had to be programmed in, because they were outside of the 6,500 most common words already in the talker’s memory.

Likewise, all but two of the words from Left Outside Alone (Fairytale and Fantasy) are default LLL words, because pop songs consist mainly of everyday core vocabulary talking words).

Scene 7:

The Head recovers from her injuries. And she promises that from now on the teaching of Core Vocabulary and Communication Skills will come before the teaching of The Impact of the Romans on Britain to children with little or no communication or independence skills.

End

Optional Intro Scene:

We could ask the author of 'Michelle Finds a Voice' for permission for Michelle to feature like this, or write a scene of our own that would deliver the same impact here:

Michelle's Mum takes her in her wheelchair for a haircut. Michelle doesn't like the style she is given but she can't say anything because she can't talk. Mum pops into another shop and leaves Michelle outside. Michelle gets mugged. She is crying when her Mum returns but she can't explain what has happened.

(Soundtrack: Anastacia: Left Outside Alone: And I wonder if you know how it really feels, to be left outside alone... I don't feel safe...)

Optional Intro Scene 2:

Inspired by Tony Jones' comments on the deployment of energies into areas other than communication and independence skills.

Michelle and other children in wheelchairs and who can't speak are in class. The tutor has just delivered a lecture on the Impact of the Romans on Britain... Tutor says something like 'Now did everyone get that?' 'Silence' was the reply. Students thoughts shown in thought bubbles.

(Same soundtrack: Anastacia: Left Outside Alone: ...So much more to say. Help me find a way...)