As you know Tom is doing so well with his eye gazing. He is now able to purposefully use his eyes to create a cause and effect on the screen. This is a massive leap forwards for Tom and he keeps surprising us with his dedication and motivation to keep improving with his eye gaze. Hopefully within the next 12 months we will be on our way to using the eye gaze in a way in which Tom can communicate with us and express his wants and needs.
In order for us to get to this point we need to build Tom up. As with any child they have to learn the basics first. Tom is confident looking at the screen, he understands that if he looks somewhere on the screen an effect will happen, for example whilst colouring wherever he looks the picture will become filled with colour. Now we need Tom to start following instructions and linking small tasks together.
In my last eye gaze update you would have seen that Tom is able to see a code and match the colours, numbers or shapes using the Inclusive Technology software, Learning Curve. This game is great at teaching Tom how to link tasks together to get one bigger outcome, However I was becoming worried that Tom would get bored of playing just this one game. There are many other games that Tom has on his eye gaze but none that fulfill the linking of small steps as well as this one does.
Tom got new software a few months back called 'Eye Can Fly'. Previously we were using this software as more of a downtime activity. One in which he didn't have to follow instructions or work quite so hard. Recently Tom has been able to start the learning aspect of 'Eye can Fly'. He has now become a member of 'Flight school' on the software. This is great at pushing Tom to follow instructions. It gives Tom simple instructions to follow and then allows Tom the time to complete the activity. One thing I really love about this is that there is no time limit, most other softwares have time scales in which an activity needs to be completed but this one does not, therefore Tom can take his time and work it out.
Flight school makes learning fun, it teaches Tom all about directions, left and right, and also how to use his eyes to access the whole of the screen. This eventually will really help him with using software to choose words and string sentences together. Therefore allowing him to openly communicate with us, our main goal.
Tom is using Eye can Fly everyday as he is really seeming to love it. There are so many games on there, not all of them educational some are just a little bit of fun, for example there is one game where you become a chicken and you get to run around the field jumping hedges (Tom loves this one). Children and adults could have a lot of fun exploring Eye can Fly and it gives them some independence.
You can purchase 'Eye Can Fly' through Inclusive Technology, if you have any questions or are thinking about purchasing this software send us a message, and Tom will be sure to reply.