His Eyes Say it All!

I would like to give an update to the posting from last summer, “Keep on Amazing Us Raymond”. And this time I am posting with a request. Raymond, now 13, with his profound hearing loss, has only been able to hear for the past 7 years after receiving a cochlear implant. Raymond is so social, but he is non-verbal and it is difficult for him to communicate with us other than with smiles, giggles, verbal sounds but no words, upset faces or tears and so on. To communicate with Raymond it takes a lot of guessing. In that last post, I talked about an assistive technology device that used Raymond’s eyes. Well, we got the device in March on a “trial” basis. We have now had it for 3 months and have been working diligently with him at school, at home and in speech therapy. It is a computer screen that has sensors that track his eye movements and uses his eyes as the mouse to make selections. Using a computer is COMPLETELY FOREIGN to him, since we can’t even be sure how much language he understands yet.  After the first month of using this eye-gaze system, he was selecting items with 20%-30% accuracy, after the 2nd month, he was up to 40%-50% accuracy. We started giving him choices for his needs like bathroom needs, and choices for activities he wanted to do. Raymond has selected pictures with his eyes and with this device told us he wanted to read a book, play with toys, get into his walker and watch TV. Imagine a teenager telling us he wanted to watch TV…this is AWESOME! This system is amazing and he is showing progress in using it, but that progress might seem small for some, but it is HUGE for Raymond! Here’s the kicker, the insurance companies referred us to a therapy team in LA to evaluate Raymond. The team down there is amazing and has been recording Raymond's progress, but before the insurance companies will consider approving a purchase of this “Communication Device” they want to see Raymond’s accuracy up to 70%-75% by next week! Raymond is soo close, on a good day he can score around 60%-70%, but he sometimes has bad days where he struggles to get his eyes to do what he wants them to do and the percentages are less. I have attached a short video of Raymond using the eye-gaze system with his speech therapist on a simple ‘cause and effect’ exercise. I have many more videos….been taking them like crazy…I will have to post those later.

I don’t usually ask for things, but will you please pray for Raymond? With God, all things are possible. Will you please join us in prayer for God’s will for Raymond, that if it is His will for Raymond to be able communicate with this device, that God will strengthen Raymond’s abilities and help him to have a good day the day he goes for his evaluation?

Isaiah 64:8 “You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter, and all we are the work of Your hand.”

Thank you…..Susan