We Are Making Progress!

As most of you will know Tom has been on a huge journey with his eye gazing. At the start of his journey we didn't know where it would take us. Today we couldn't be happier with how he is doing.

We have never put any pressure on Tom to use his eye gaze, we have never forced him to do it and we have never put any pressure on ourselves. Throughout our ongoing journey we have just always given Tom choices. A choice wether or not he wants to use the eye gaze, it has always been there ready for him to access it if he wants to.

By having a no pressure approach we have managed to make huge leaps with Tom. The first time we filmed Tom using the eye gaze during a bubbles activity (read the blog post) Tom was starting to use 1 or 2 words in context. We have been practising this over the past few months and now Tom is stringing short sentences together often completely independently.

To some a few short sentences might not mean a lot, but to us this is a huge deal. Tom has so much potential and the Grid Pad is giving Tom the opportunity to share his potential with the world. We have managed to make such huge progress in a relatively short time who knows how far we could go there really are no boundaries. Watch the video to see a snippet of Tom's amazing progress.

PASSWORD: 2502

Perseverance is the key. We have never given up, even on days in which Tom isn't really feeling it we still give a go. We never get disheartened if an activity doesn't go to plan or if Tom doesn't want to talk to us one day. After all we all have days where we don't want to talk to anybody!

We are all in this crazy little bubble together and we are learning this amazing technology as a team.

It is so nice to see Tom's humour coming out through the Grid Pad. He is not only able to tell jokes, but he is also able to tell me to 'hurry up' or 'stop' or most commonly 'wash my feet'. I love seeing Tom's personality coming out in this way. Those close to Tom know his humour without the Grid Pad but for Tom to show the world just how funny he is is amazing. Watch out Lost Voice Guy, Tom is coming to take your place on the stage.

Smartbox has changed everything. They are the most amazing company with the best support system you could ever want. If we have any problem at all someone is always on hand to help us. Tom is never left without his eye gaze. All those at Smartbox understand the impact their devices have on the children and adults using them and they have a true passion for what they do. Jay is our hero, without him we really wouldn't have got this far on our journey.

Keep your eyes peeled for something extra exciting with Tom and Smartbox in the near future.