My board switch

Dear Friends,

I am so moved by your responses to my last post. It is something we need to acknowledge: interdependence. I am glad so many of you get it.

Today I am particularly compulsive. It is always like this when I am tired. I want to share about a recent change to my letterboard. My trusted and battered old green one has been mine for years. It was given to me by Elizabeth Vosseller, who first taught me Spelling to Communicate. I cherish it!

But I was developing many compulsions on it. I was grabbing it from my CRPs, spelling out nonsense words super fast. I was compulsively spelling out sounds that people make, like “um.” If Tara said “okay” I had to spell it. I had so many tics on that board, despite Tara trying to prevent it. It was interfering with my communication.

So my mom and I asked Dawnmarie Gaivin at Spellers Center San Diego to help. She is so good at thinking of ways to support motor initiation and inhibition. The idea she developed for me was to transition to a new board for communication, but keep the old one handy so I could direct my compulsive spelling there instead of my new board. This avoids triggering my panicked OCD response to a compulsion being blocked, by redirecting it.

It is working so well! I have been using the new board for about two weeks. It is a transition for sure, but I am working hard with my CRPs to keep the new board clean of compulsive pointing. I am relieved that this helps. I still wish I could do away with all the compulsive pointing altogether, but I am glad for this improvement.

Remember, practice makes permanent! I needed to make a change in what I was doing because I was reinforcing these compulsive pathways. I am so grateful my team is able to help me with this!

Your Friend,

Danny