I had no communication device when I was growing up. All I had was an alphabet board. With just an alphabet board it was hard to have a conversation with anyone because they had to keep track of every letter of every word I “spoke” in their head long enough to get at what I was trying to say. And it turns out a lot of people can’t spell well.

When I got my first communication device I was an adult and it was hard making myself use it. I was shy and embarrassed to use it, because all my life, up until that time, I had relied on my alphabet board with an interpreter who both knew me and could read my alphabet board. My shyness was the result of the fact that I was not used to communicating directly with people except family and close friends. I had always used another person to speak for me.

I was embarrassed to use my DynaVox because I was self-conscious and worried about using it in front of people unfamiliar with me, and what they would think. I would think, “Am I slow at responding to people?” or “Are they going to be impatient with me and walk away?” If someone came up to me and asked me a question I would put my head down and shy away from them instead of responding.

Now I use my DynaVox a lot more and have more self-confidence in using it. I can say what I want to say and I don’t have to rely on an interpreter much. Having an interpreter can be a pain because they don’t always say what I want them to: they say what they want to say, or what they think I meant to say.

So don’t push the person to use their new device, but encourage them to use it. Say “I can’t understand you” a lot and eventually they will see that they need to use their device more if they want to be understood. Using a communication device will help their self-confidence, and then they will say to themselves “I can communicate on my own.” The most important reason for using a communication device is that it is a tool for communicating the best way that you can.