The See-n-Speak products were derived through having a child with poor communication and social skills. After much frustration our beautiful son was eventually diagnosed with a mild diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
We quickly learnt that our son was a visual learner apart from auditory. With the guidance of our wonderful early intervention team, we set about developing visual systems to get him to communicate, make his own choices and build his self-esteem.
My son Flynn at age 3
At age 3, our son Flynn was extremely shy, virtually non-verbal and preferred his own company apart from the company of others.
Anxiety was quite evident and to elevate this we started showing him photographs of where he was going. For example, showing him a photo of the park his anxiety would subside once he knew where he was going.
I also realised that I was making all of Flynn’s food choices for him. I set about building a portfolio of food photographs and would get him to start choosing between two food items. He quickly picked up this concept and before long his speech started coming into play.
Photographs were compiled of play activities to motivate him to interact, learn, play, academic and social skills necessary for school.
We are so very proud of Flynn who is now:
- Talking in sentences
- Can make his own choices
- Plays appropriately with his brother, sister and friends
- Overcome his anxiety to play mainstream soccer, football and little athletics with the help of social stories to help him understand the rules
- Most importantly, he is happy and his confidence is growing everyday
Flynn is still quite shy and always will be. We still use visuals to help him understand certain situations and/or places. Social stories play a big role in Flynn’s life. Academically he is doing well and like all other parents, we work hard in developing systems and social stories that work for Flynn.
Now we want to help other families, teachers & carers by offering the same photographs that were so successful for our son.
