Welcome to Unlimited Parenting, where we discuss having children with disabilities or and special
health care needs.
My name is Allison and today I am joined by my other host.
You're basically a host, right?
My partner in crime.
That's me.
And she has just recently done something very exciting and she is the key holder of all
of this knowledge and I'm going to make her share it with me and you and your friend Steve.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Anyway, okay.
You got to be really old to know that.
Well welcome back from iPad Boot Camp.
Thank you.
Which is what it was called, right?
iPad Boot Camp.
And it was through SESTA?
It was.
And what does SESTA stand for?
So SESTA is our state's special education training and technical assistance for a special
education LEA.
So our local education agencies can participate and have SESTA provide them special education
training and technical assistance.
So is that who was there?
It was a bunch of school staff, districts.
It was.
It was a really cool combination of people.
So it was paraprofessionals.
It was a lot of speech language pathologists.
Oh really?
Yeah.
Probably three or four speech language pathologists.
And then there were four or five special education teachers.
We had some individuals from VR, so vocational rehab that was there.
A couple people that were, that help students that have visual or hearing impairments.
So really like a whole bunch of different people and then some parents too.
Yeah, that's wild.
Because I had just assumed that it was teachers.
No, I didn't realize it was service providers.
Yes, it was.
It was a whole bunch of people.
Administrators, it was parents.
It was, and it was more than just one day, right?
It was.
It was two days.
And our first full day we focused on, I got there and I thought, oh, this isn't really
iPad bootcamp because we were making things, but the things that we were making.
So I should back up and I should say that this was hosted and facilitated by Therese
Wilcom and she is a PhD out of the New Hampshire.
She is our Janice Carson.
For those of us in Idaho who just love our AT project and Janice Carson is the executive
director of that.
So Therese is Janice in the state of New Hampshire.
But she has also gone on to really make this her life's mission of supporting students,
but also supporting them with technology, but supporting them with the assistive technology
to support their assistive technology too.
Okay, because I was going to say, why did we source someone from New Hampshire?
Right?
Because.
But it's because she's so knowledgeable.
She's so knowledgeable.
So she is knowledgeable about not only technology, but how to make that technology accessible
for all.
So I'm talking about mounts on wheelchairs out of the most random things that you have
ever thought.
Or I have sitting in front of me and for those of you who are out in internet land and they
can't hear, I'm going to do the Velcro.
Oh, it's an ASMR podcast now.
It is, yes.
But we took, so I showed up on the first day and I was a little nervous because sitting
directly at my little tabletop were political signs.
And I'm like, where did I go?
I thought I entered the wrong room.
Right?
I thought I was at iPad bootcamp and then there were some scissors and there were some
Velcro.
So I started realizing that it was a therapy session.
You are going to destroy stuff.
Right?
And we spent the first whole day ripping apart these political signs, sticking Velcro on
them and making the coolest iPad supports, different stuff that I didn't ever think that
I even needed.
It's like a pop socket.
It's a pop socket.
In varying different styles of pop socket.
So we have a small one for a phone.
We have a larger one for an iPad and there is varying.
So there on the backs of them, you can see that there's like sticky grippy so that they
don't move on a table.
Oh, I never noticed that.
Super important for my kiddo because he is going to hit something, you know, and he needs
things.
He has a cortical visual impairment.
And so we need things to be at an angle for him to see that.
And these stands that we made out of these political signs allow us to be able to move
and do what angle Reese's iPad would be the most efficient for him in.
And it was all really made out of trash and treasures and not really expensive because
I bought iPad stands that are really, really expensive and they don't work.
And Reese checks them across our family room.
And they're frisbee now.
It's a hundred dollar frisbee.
This was a free frisbee that he has not destroyed yet to this point.
He loves to play with the Velcro.
It is it.
I don't know who this person was that was running.
So what you're saying is if you see me pulling a political vote for me signs while you're
driving to work, mind your business.
Mind your business.
Because I think he knows the technology.
So Ian, I have given a lot of these links and everything to Alison and she's going to
put in the notes because there is some really, really great.
These books can all be purchased on Amazon and they walk you through step by step of
other things that we made.
And the really great thing is she's provided videos because I'm a visual learner.
So I also want I want it listed out, but I want to see the steps that it took and I want
to see it in action.
And so that's really what we did the whole first day.
We spent the first day making and hands on and we made mounts for chairs out of PVC pipe
and some moldable.
I didn't even know this stuff existed.
These moldable beads that you can heat up with water and you can glue them to PVC pipe.
And then a PVC pipe hooks right onto a wheelchair and you have a wheelchair mount and we all
and for thirty dollars.
Whereas you are going to spend hundreds of dollars on wheelchair mounts if you are purchasing
them through your wheelchair manufacturer or as durable medical equipment.
So I got really excited the first day because I saw all the possibilities and I got like
some of those creative juices flowing.
And then it made me really excited to come back for day two and see what's the technology
that we can now use because now these students have it accessible to them, whether they are
a student that can only lay lay in bed.
Now we can have she showed us how to make a mount for an iPad that can go directly above
the student and support the student while they are laying in bed.
So a lot of different options and a lot of different.
We made things.
It was kind of cool.
It was an arts and craft hour.
It really was.
I think it's a good demonstration of low versus medium versus high tech AT because when I
think of assistive technology the very first thing I think of is AAC.
Like Proloquo to Go is immediately the first thing I think of when I think of AAC.
I'm not thinking of all the other ways that it's used.
Like a communication board at the park is assistive technology.
A graphic organizer is assistive technology.
None of that stuff ever crosses my mind.
None of these little phone stands.
No.
Or I know it never would have crossed your mind.
No I would have never thought of any of this.
And that's why on day one I went oh I brought my iPad.
Where when are we going to start?
You told me to bring my iPad.
And I had to rip that out of my kid's hand and take it.
So he was not happy.
So the second day we really spent a lot of time diving into different apps for things
like communication.
We spent a little bit of time on that.
But also visual schedule apps.
Some fine motor gross motor.
And so I thought maybe we could even talk about some of those.
Yeah because one of them on here.
I was listening to you talk.
I really was.
But I was laughing and you gave me a weird look and it was because I had to remember
the milk.
Yeah.
Well you're going to laugh because that is an app that we have actually started using
in my home after I went to this.
So I'll start out and I'll start out with kind of what a lot of people think of when
they think of assistive technology which is exactly what you just said in the there are
those communication and speech apps.
And I would say we did not spend a ton of time on this because as a speech language
pathologist and I'm not one but a speech language pathologist is going to need to facilitate
and help you as a family really figure out what the right need is for your kiddo.
If they need an augmentative communication app.
I know my kiddo uses one and we spent years and years and years with our SLP really just
trying to figure out what the right right.
And there's no right or wrong answer.
It's just kind of pick one stick with it.
And you know go pray for the best.
Exactly.
And so we we chose proloquo.
That's what we've always used.
That's where that's what we do.
There are several other ones and we did go into a little bit of this at iPad boot camp
and just kind of touched on.
They're expensive but these are language and these are robust language systems that can
grow with students.
And so some of the most popular ones on there obviously proloquo is really really popular.
I like it because it uses those symbols that my son has always used.
He's really he recognizes them.
But it's also really easy to modify add on the fly.
I can add buttons as we need them and it allows us to just kind of be able to add to his communication
as he needs it.
I want to say any of these other ones don't ask a question.
As someone whose kids don't use AAC devices when we talk about them being more universal
in terms of symbols.
Does that mean that you know the crosswalk symbol looks the same as the ones just at
a normal crosswalk.
So everything is the same.
So you can get that generalization that they see it on their app or their talker and then
they see it IRL in real life.
So some of them will use the boardmaker symbols that we see and are very familiar with.
Those are those symbols probably.
There are some I think lamp is one that uses their own symbols and so it would just be
for a student that recognizes those symbols stick with lamp for life.
Stick with what that student is recognizing I would say.
But again I'm not an SLP.
I just no no no have played one in real life for 14 years.
Oh yeah you are the expert in your child.
So I don't want to spend tons of time on communication apps but there's some really cool ones out
there and some cool ones that can be really proloquial can go on a phone.
You know it can be really.
That is what and you know what it shouldn't be wild to me right because it should be universal
you should be able to use it everywhere but it just is wild to me.
It is but how like how transportable is that right.
You know that's pretty cool.
It's just like a translator device you know what exact foreign exchange students come
and they have a device and they can take it anywhere with them.
Exactly.
Yeah so that's that.
Anyways and then we spent a lot of time on organization and time management and we spent
a lot of time actually just in our iPads and our iPhones working through the shortcuts
that Apple offers.
And there are so many cool things that you can do within just iOS using those shortcuts.
For example you know if you're using the smart light bulbs you can set it like in your house
in your home Amazon.
Yes yes.
So if you're using a smart light bulb and you can set that up with your phone to turn
it on when you walk into a room with you know the so there are some and I would never think
of that.
No I would just but but we are people that can flip a light switch on as we walk.
But now it reminds me of the you know the alarm clock that I use that has changed my
life.
I know.
That's assistive technology isn't it.
Absolutely.
Okay now I have to explain the clock.
Okay so I got a I have a really hard time waking up in the morning so I have a I've
tried alarm clocks.
I actually tried one of the alarm clocks that will it's got a pad that goes under your bed
sheet and it will vibrate your bed in case you were you know you were deaf or blind and
you you needed that.
It didn't really work for me but there's a clock.
It looks like a toy.
It's on wheels and it literally rolls away from you.
If you have seen it before and you wondered who would ever buy that it's me.
Ladies and gentlemen it rolls away it rolls under your bed it rolls down the stairs and
it makes you get up and chase after it.
Down the stairs it rolled downstairs this morning.
I had to walk all the way down the stairs to get it.
But you know what it got my booty out of bed and I made a coffee and I walked back upstairs.
I was in the best mood.
I was like zippity doo dah because it works and it gets my butt out of bed but that counts
right.
That is assistive technology.
We didn't make it but I totally count.
I just need to broaden my idea.
Okay anyway sorry no organization and time management.
But no I think that is a really good forte or what do you call it segue.
Yes segue.
It is my forte.
Waking up in the morning is not my forte though.
So some apps that are really that we talked about for organization and time management
there's a Choiceworks app that is a really good app to help students that really struggle
with some executive functioning.
Choiceworks comes with Choiceworks calendar and it kind of pushes them all in together
and it allows students to prioritize.
It allows students to see what's coming up next.
But then you can input in some rewards and incentives into this as well.
So it can you can see that light at the end of the tunnel.
If I do this and then I get to you need a dopamine hit.
Yeah yeah.
So I use I use a visual daily schedule with my son and that's the second and it's number
six on our.
And it is fifty dollars a year but it allows us to kind of do that first then in real life
and he can see it.
It utilizes the same symbols as his proloquo.
So then we have that generalization right.
So this is on his iPad.
It's not okay.
So it's separate and it kind of it's our first then.
So first we get up then we wash our face.
So our first you know first we put our shoes on and then we get our backpack or you know
so it follows those first then first then and it's on his tablet which he already uses
to communicate.
So it's all just right there.
Yes well it's on a separate tablet.
So his tablet for communication we only only only only only use it for communication.
Okay.
Nothing else that goes on that.
So all of our social stories and our visual timers any of those kind of things go on it
on a second iPad.
Okay does it carry them both around with him.
Yeah okay.
He doesn't like to carry his time.
I'm sorry I'm asking a lot about your own personal side.
Okay.
This is supposed to be very broad but now I'm really curious.
I think for a lot of users that use an AAC device it comes very some people carry it
around some people wear it on them.
Okay yeah yeah.
So these are good questions for you're someone that doesn't.
Yes I know.
There is no AAC device.
I mean obviously the main person who uses this is you.
But then we're going to get to the remember the milk app.
And this is an app that I learned about at the iPad boot camp and I went this is an app
that my husband needs not my son who uses an AAC device.
Your husband and your co-worker.
Yeah.
We just download this app.
But this was something and so this is something that we have downloaded together and we it
can be synced up and so it can be used to really organize homework or you know sports
schedules or something like that.
But we're using it from like a household management kind of standpoint.
Like we need milk and we need butter.
People should know right you have four kids.
You're not just Europe.
Europe fast paced moving everyone's going in different directions.
Yeah.
And that is that kind of like maybe this isn't popping up in your for you page.
Those big those big calendars right.
And they look like a frame portrait.
Yeah.
And people are checking off their tasks and stuff.
Is this similar.
It is.
I want one of those.
So bad.
Those are absolutely popping up on my for you page.
I just don't think I think I would use that.
I don't think there would be the shared use that did they actually that is such a good
thing that I really wanted to ask you about.
Did they talk about how to get buy in from your from your student from your child from
because you know when you want to try something new kids are like no thank you.
I prefer the way we have always done it.
Yes.
So well some not necessarily.
But I guess some of the buy in would come from a lot of kids are motivated by technology.
So for example some of the some of the educational professionals that were there some of the
teachers that were there said oh we are doing it this way.
That's low tech.
I could see this being very motivating from a high tech standpoint.
So some of the visual schedules some of the visual timers they're doing those very low
tech right now.
They're doing them with Velcro and yeah on the board a board right or a timer.
So they are seeing this as maybe it would be motivating because students are very motivated
by technology and apps.
So we didn't necessarily talk about how to get the buy in.
OK.
But it's very you can tell it's a conversation that people are having like like you mentioned
the low tech isn't working.
So maybe we move on.
We move to high tech.
Yeah.
I also think well no I think that was a really good question because I also think that some
of the supports that we learned like some of the stand some of how to make the technology
more accessible for students would also then help the students and be more motivating.
Right.
Yeah.
So that was like the scratching the surface of the things that we learned.
When I say like we learned how to make a light box for a student that that's maybe you guys
were building Kiwi co-kit.
We were.
Yes.
I mean there were yes scissors.
That's insane.
Sawing like we were building.
We were you were living your best life.
That's your thing.
It really was.
It was my favorite.
If there had been a few farm animals around there I'd have been really happy.
I mean I was like oh my gosh hold on I need to go see the chicken.
Right.
But so no there wasn't an exact talk about how to make it motivating but I think all
of the things that we were doing would have directly related and made students warm.
If that makes sense.
Yeah no it does.
I know what you're saying.
OK.
So now we could talk about some of the reading and writing apps that we went into.
My most favorite is always always always going to be.
I'll wait till I get to grow a fine motor because it's more fine motor.
We talked about learning LA and this wasn't something that I had really ever really thought
of and I don't know why but membership is required for that.
But it essentially this is an audio book app that there are so many audio books and students
that are allowed to go on here.
Students are struggling with reading students that are struggling with some dyslexia processing
phonetic just any students are having some learning difficulty or reading difficulties.
This is a really they can slow it down and I'm sure it's the same with any audio book
app.
This one just was we talked about it because it's used primarily within the school systems.
I guess.
Have you ever heard of that as well.
I haven't.
OK.
I haven't heard of it.
So it's a subscription based but it's apparently it's a subscription based that a lot of schools
and educational facilities are they get that would be something good to add in cultivating
readers.
That's 2.0.
Wow.
There's lots of cross.
This was such a good workshop for you to go.
It really did.
There's a lot of crossover.
Yeah.
You're right.
There actually was.
Oh my gosh.
You were right.
My most favorite.
You love that.
That's going to be her sound bite.
She's going to pull that out.
You were right.
Voice Dream Reader was the coolest thing that I've ever seen because it allows you as a
student that needs to read a book that is in front of you to take your iPhone scan it
and it reads that document out loud stop it out loud right then and there.
What a great piece of assistive technology.
Yes.
Right.
For any what if anyone forgot your glasses.
Exactly.
What if.
And that is exactly what this app has allowed people to do.
What if you're studying and you just can't read one more thing or what if you're an audio
learner instead of a reading learner visual and you just want.
Oh my god.
Right.
That is way so cool.
So it converts any text to read aloud.
Anything.
So also very cool.
When you said translation earlier this is something that it's translatable to different
languages as well.
So.
Oh wow.
Right.
I'm like I'm using this maybe.
Wait.
Talk to me about these customizable voices.
Is this like Siri where I can make it be an Australian man.
Yeah.
So some of those and that's the same with a lot of the things that have voice outputs
like oh I'm just so ignorant.
Oh this is so cool.
Yeah Reese's proloquo has various different voices.
He uses the Josh voice which is a younger student.
But you know what.
Like it's like you know but his voice is getting deeper.
Maybe he needs to be Dave.
Yeah I don't know what the name is.
But now.
But you can.
You can customize it.
You can download Snoop Dogg to be reading it out.
But like your GPS.
Like my children who the story where my mom had them read that.
Mathel McConaughey read them so they fell asleep.
Yes.
But I think that might be in the Calm app and that is actually an app that we're talking
about.
I know one.
Yes you do know one.
So anyways that book that voice Dream Reader was the coolest thing that I mean that blew
my mind.
You popped it out scanned it.
It read aloud.
So that's it.
And is that free just within that purchase.
There's in that purchases.
So sometimes you have to watch some videos and you know but what a cool how.
Right.
Yeah.
The other one that I thought was really really cool is for students that really struggle
with handwriting is this snap type pro to its forty nine ninety nine a year.
But it allows students to take pictures of their worksheets and it makes them customize
fillable objects like like that like a PDF like a PDF.
Wow.
So that's for students that were handwriting is a struggle where we don't want to have
a scribe that's with this student.
This allows them to take users this technology and then it makes it and then it can be turned
into their teacher.
Your kid needs it.
I swear I was I was like oh you mean the kids who behaviors when they because they don't
understand the point because everyone just types now anyway.
So what's the point of the end right.
The point.
Wow.
Oh yeah.
Um there are some you know we we see our zones of regulation.
So a lot to help calm down the zones of regulation app is five ninety nine but it helps students
kind of learn and recognize their emotions through those zones that are really aware
our kids are really aware of.
But it also gives them prompts of you know maybe to get back into green maybe chewing
gum would help you.
Oh we like ideas ideas ideas ideas.
So it's not just like oh green or your yellow.
You need to get to green.
It gives you maybe some tools or strategies to get you there.
Really age appropriate ones.
Maybe chewing gum isn't do you feel like your age when you do it.
You feel like kind of your level.
OK.
Yeah.
And then there's that breathing do with Sesame and again that's probably for a lot younger
kids but it is designed with those Sesame Street characters kind of the same things.
There are some like next steps and it says you know planning I guess it would say.
But but with those Sesame Street characters.
So there are so many options.
Yeah.
Um and then what.
Then if we go into like sensory and calm those are just kind of movement ones.
OK.
Noodle is.
And I think those are things some of these are already commonly.
Yeah.
Said in classrooms.
Yeah.
I was aware of a lot of them.
Some movement.
I mean yeah.
Um and then as we get to fine motor that's kind of my favorite.
I use my kids iPad a lot for his fine motor work.
Dexteria Junior is hand exercises.
We I've seen this at the clinic.
I've seen my son the OT kind of use this.
They use it to develop hand strength but really those really really fine motor like pointing
and pinching and tracing but all within this app.
Letter school is handwriting practice.
My favorite handwriting practice one is writing wizard that allows you to customize it.
I can put my kid's name in there.
I could put sight words on there.
You can pick different varying levels.
I just like that I can make his name in there and then he can trace his name.
Functional it's totally functional.
And at the end when they complete it it exposed there's a big explosion and fire.
Oh who doesn't love that.
Right.
It's super fun.
Everybody.
Yeah.
There's there's just a few other ones.
And then there were the we ended the day at iPad boot camp.
We put a cherry on top by our gross motor app and it was our super stretch yoga.
And it was really fun because it puts the yoga poses into cartoon like characters the
downward dog.
There was a dog with his bum in the air and then we all did it.
You know you have to kind of match the same poses as the animal.
Perfect.
Yeah.
So it's really fun and it got that it got our wiggles out.
It gets you moving.
But it's very age appropriate for kids to.
If you'll remember way back in the dark ages we did a variation of that and peer leadership.
Yes.
Do you remember that.
I do remember that back in the dark ages.
Back in the dark ages.
So we spent just two whole days just learning about assistive technology and I learned that
it's assistive technology is so much more than you think it is.
Yeah.
It sounds like it's way more than I thought.
And you can kind of do something with everything.
There is an app to support everybody.
Sometimes you're going to spend a lot of money sometimes you're not going to spend any money.
So thank you for bringing that up.
Is there a fund for schools where they like an assistive technology fund because assistive
technology is part of IDEA.
Yeah.
It is a must.
Absolutely.
And if these apps are necessary to support a student's learning in the school environment
for their free and appropriate education.
Yeah.
These are apps that the school should and could be asked to pay for or to ask to how
is on their own assistive technology.
Yeah.
And what about the AT project.
Yes.
Were they there?
They were there.
Okay.
And did they talk about their lending libraries?
They did not necessarily talk about their lending libraries but I think it's because
everybody there knew about it.
But I could talk about it.
Yeah.
I'm like I don't know anything about lending.
So I did mention earlier that we have the lovely, lovely, lovely.
She's kind of lovely.
She's so freaking sweet.
So sweet.
Janice Karsten runs our AT project that's housed out of the University of Idaho.
However, it is a statewide lending library of assistive technology.
And so again, when you think of assistive technology, don't just think of iPads.
Don't just think of it on AAC, Allison.
Don't because the assistive technology that's available at those learning libraries is things
like grabbers.
You could have different ramps.
For wheelchairs.
Exactly.
There are so many different things.
Yeah, there is assistive technology.
That is technology.
That is iPads.
There are some switches.
There are just there's toys.
There's varying different, varying levels of technology.
There's some Braille machines.
There are I wonder if they have one of those alarm clocks.
I potentially could.
If they don't, they need to get one because more people need to try that.
If you take a sleep medication and you struggle to wake up in the morning, that alarm clock,
its name is clocky.
Really?
Not to be confused, I guess.
So I said that the other day.
I said it's clocky.
And so someone Googled it.
It could have even been Sarah in our office.
And she said, oh, it's a cartoon.
And I said, Nae Nae, it's an alarm clock.
So I think there's a real cartoon called Clocky, but the one that I purchased from Amazon,
shoot, I'll put the link in the description.
Like and subscribe.
I'm not, I'm not, obviously we're not being paid by them.
This isn't a plug, but it is something that I think people, other people could benefit
from.
It's just cool to know that I have just incredibly recently benefited from assistive technology.
I know they didn't talk about the future of assistive technology with you at iPad bootcamp,
but in preparation for this podcast, I went down a rabbit hole.
And I, cause I was thinking, you know, in 1998 when they had the assistive technology
act, right?
Did they know what AT was going to look like in 2024 when we had it?
Right?
No, of course not.
How could they have possibly known?
So then that got my gears a turn in what would AT look like, you know, 20 years from now?
I know 98 was, was like 20.
I want to pretend like it was 10 years ago.
You went over 20 years ago.
It was a while ago when I graduated.
Right?
Yeah.
Let's see.
Okay.
Don't age your speech.
Oh, I know.
I'm sorry.
You need my assistive technology name.
I know.
So I started, I started on the Googles.
There are so many websites that are dedicated to the future of assistive technology.
And I've included one in the description below the things that they were talking about.
So if you think about it for a second, it makes a lot of sense, right?
They're talking about the integration of AI into assistive technology, which is kind of
what you touched on a little bit earlier with the smart home.
Yeah.
And the light switches and all of your shortcuts.
I mean, we didn't even touch on shortcuts.
Right.
Yeah.
And I think that that is something super cool that everybody should explore is the shortcuts.
But there were two things that I really wanted to talk about because I just thought they
were so cool.
Okay.
So the first one is smart wheelchairs, right?
Okay.
Wheelchairs and other mobility aids will become more intelligent with features like obstacle
detection, autonomous navigation, and integration with smart home devices.
How cool would it be if you were an individual who utilized a wheelchair and you're on your
way home and you just, I want my microwave to start popping my popcorn or my cure to
percolate.
Your doors open.
Yeah.
So cool.
Why is it not already a possibility in the year of our Lord 2024?
Well, something really cool that's along those lines that I have purchased the equipment
to make this happen and I am committing to these users, these listeners that I will do
it this weekend.
I'm excited because I want this for my son.
So I have purchased a smart plug and then we can program his iPad to say, Alexa, turn
on my TV.
It'll turn on his TV.
So on his AIC device, he just, oh.
And that was something I learned about the future.
That's funny because we talked, so I guess we did talk about the future.
A little bit.
Yeah, okay.
And I guess more than anything, I left this bootcamp as a mom of a student who uses an
AIC device, really, really, really happy that my kid was born when he was born and that
he has access to this.
Why?
Yeah.
Wow.
Thank goodness.
Because 20 years ago, we would have had a communication binder that we would have been
carrying around trying to get him to.
The Velcro.
Yeah.
More of the Velcro.
Now there's a time and a place for Velcro.
Absolutely.
And you need to know of assistive technology that you can utilize should you want to go
camping, should the power go out.
In the bathtub.
I need to be able to.
Absolutely.
So there is a time and a place for all different kinds of technology, but yeah, I'm glad you
did that.
Can I talk about one?
Yeah, because I thought that was so cool.
Okay.
Exoskeletons and robotics for individuals with mobility issues.
Robotic exoskeletons, and I looked this up, it's real.
They're really like, it's almost like ready for the typical consumer audience.
It's not just been tested.
It's almost ready to be.
Obviously these are prices that are astronomically different than what we're talking about, but
we're talking about the future.
Robotic exoskeletons will become more common, providing children with physical disabilities
new opportunities for mobility and independence.
And I thought about the story that I'm going to share about when you said that you had
a PT on consult who helped to make sure that your son could navigate the stairs.
This makes me think of like, what if schools had these in instances of emergency preparedness?
What about a fire drill?
What about an unsafe person drill?
What about...
Right.
Anywhere, we could be anywhere.
An earthquake drill, tornado drill, name a natural disaster, right?
What if we could use these in those instances to get individuals out of the building faster
and more effectively and efficiently?
And again, like I said, if you're a nerd, kind of like me, I've included that in the
description where there is so much more than what I just described.
Infinitely more.
And they have the future of AAC devices, which after knowing my audience, I should have looked
that one more into that one.
But it is wild.
The future is bright and big and she's a coming down the mountain when she comes.
I mean, 20 years ago, iPads were $4,000 an iPad or something.
True.
That's true.
We had an iPod, we had a phone, we had a...
Oh my God, I calculated.
So it's getting more accessible.
Absolutely.
Yay.
Thank you so much, everyone out there for listening in and know that if you are in Idaho
or planning on moving to Idaho and have questions on systems or services for children with disabilities,
please consider reaching out to us on our website at iPullIdaho.org or by calling us
at 208-342-5884.
Be sure to tune in next time.
Until then, this has been Unlimited Parenting.
Thanks for listening.