Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome resident Donna has been keeping an online diary of her experiences living in her state-of-the-art home. This month, find out how a new program on her husband (and fellow SmartHome resident) Gerald’s assistive communication device is helping Gerald prepare to enter the workforce for the first time – at the age of 49! And you can see all of her diary entries by clicking here. Some big news I have this week is that my husband Gerald and I are both getting our power chairs back from the shop. What a difference it makes to be able to be independently mobile. Gerald will once again be able to move about the home and community using his head switch. We’re both excited about that.
Another cool thing going on is that Gerald is in the process of learning to count to 100 as part of the preparation for his upcoming job. He’s going to counting inventory at Twisted Pine Brewing Company, so as you can see, being able to count to 100 is an important barrier for him to conquer. He is really up to the challenge and has been working hard. When he began this process, he was able to identify numbers one – nine, but now he’s improved to correctly identifying double digit numbers too and is up to getting 40% correct. Megan Witt, a teacher at CORE/Labor Source, set up a program for Gerald which tests him and then scores how he did. The computer program reads a number out loud, and Gerald has to type it in correctly.
Some numbers are tougher than others. He really loves numbers like 44, 66, 77, and 88, and 99, but it’s the numbers like 10, 12, and 60 that are tough, because they don’t sound like they’re written. Another problem that he had but is overcoming is when he’d hear a number like 36, he’d type in the 6 because that’s the last thing he heard. When you think about it, it’s a wonder ANY of us knows how to count. It’s not easy to learn.
Gerald is a smart man though, and he’s working hard on this. I have a lot of confidence in him to continue to improve. I can’t tell you how proud I am of his effort, and I enjoy being able to help him when I can. I can also see how proud he is when he improves his scores. There are not many people who want to put forth the effort to learn how to count at the age of 49.
For leisure, we’ve been watching a show called Weeds. It’s about a family that helps other people out. We watch it together and really enjoy it. If it’s late at night and one of us wants to watch another episode and the other one wants to go to sleep, we’ve agreed to keep the TV on because we can both sleep with the TV on anyway.
On Saint Patty’s Day we stayed home and shared a beer (Twisted Pine beer of course). We also continue to talk to Gerald’s mom on the phone about once or twice a week. She is an absolute delight, and has welcomed me into her family which means so much to me.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for keeping up with me.
Donna
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