shoes

Ben is now 9! I just reread my last proper blog about Ben’s birthday, when he turned 7, and much of it I would like to repeat: I can’t believe he’s 9! He’s so tall! Well done us for 9 years of parenting!

A lot has happened in the last two years, though in many ways things for Ben and us can seem similar – the appointments, the physio, the school, his interests. When you are there every day you don’t notice your kids growing up, until you catch sight of them across a playground and cannot believe that massive child once lived in your (my) womb.

Two years ago I said Ben had:

“made huge progress on using his eyegaze computer: using it almost every day, knowing exactly what he wants to do, reliably choosing stories and then navigating through them like a pro, using communication software to create messages that were totally appropriate to the moment.”

That was true then. It is also true now: what I want to tell you on Ben’s 9th birthday is that he’s got so much better at using his eyegaze computer (and lowtech communication book). That he often knows exactly what he wants to do, will choose the story he wants and navigate through it, that he goes into and then exit activities when he wants. That he uses his communication software to say things that are entirely appropriate.

Some of what I want to say sounds so similar to 2016 that it begs the question of what what exactly has changed since he was 7. The complexity of the way Ben learns and communicates means progress, or development, is hard won. It can be inconsistent and hard to capture precisely. I look back on Ben two years ago and I know that he wasn’t as good at navigating around his communication device as he is now. That isn’t to say he wasn’t doing those things before, but perhaps I did see small improvements and leapt on them. I know more now, I expect more of him now. In some ways Ben is doing much the same stuff he was doing two years ago, and in other ways he’s made wonderful progress.

The timescale of helping Ben learn new skills is difficult – it can take a long time. It can be hard to know whether he is improving or learning, and therefore whether you are doing the right thing. It can feel pointless to continue working on something that appears to be having little impact. We knew that communication was a long term project, probably lifelong, but you still can’t help hoping that there will be some kind of miraculous progress at some point.

Which of course there isn’t. But there is slow incremental improvement, a bit more nuance, a little more unprompted communication. It is all subtle and understated. We are talking about complex skills, involving deft eye control, motor planning, memory and language knowledge. It’s difficult to articulate, but I’ll do my best.

Two years ago Ben was using a high-tech eyegaze device that we had bought ourselves – it was a laptop with an eye tracker connected via USB. He could only use it when sat at a table. For the last 18 months he has had an NHS-funded eyegaze device which mounts to his wheel-, school- and home-chairs. He is still quite light, so his weight isn’t sufficient counterweight when the device attached which means it can’t be mounted all the time (e.g. on uneven ground), but he has it mounted on his chair at home and school for some portion of every day. For the last year he has also had additional educational funding so he has two hours of 1:1 time each day when an adult supports his communication specifically – modelling how to say something on his device, helping him find specific vocabulary, helping him use his device to do school work.

These developments have given him more time to practise and more opportunities to find pathways within his communication software. Sometimes progress doesn’t look how you imagined: over the summer he used all of this input to navigate out of his communication software every time I tried to talk to him using it. Every single time. This was disheartening – isn’t supporting his communication meant to mean he communicates with us more?

To do this he was adeptly selecting three different cells in different positions on three different pages in order to exit his PODD communication software and then go to one of the stories on his device – clearly communicating that he didn’t want to talk to me, he wanted to read (and be read) a book. So I had to admire his determination and skill, and respect his wishes – to force him to talk would be as inappropriate as trying to make a verbal child speak to you.

Since the summer he has chilled out in this particular regard, and will now talk with his device. It is mostly in the context of a specific conversation rather than unprompted speech. It’s getting increasingly relevant and timely, with some ‘scaffolding’ provided by his communication partner.

For his birthday Ben’s aunt Rosie sent him some incredible shoes with lights in the soles. Once we’d opened the package and put them on, we talked about them with his device. I went to the homepage of his communication software, where there are various categories of words, and went to Special Events. He then chose ‘happy’ and ‘birthday’, and then I selected ‘present’. I said ‘this present was from…’, and I went back to the home page and into the People folder, where Ben selected ‘Rosie.

I said, ‘yes, from Rosie. And look what she’s bought you!’. I couldn’t remember where exactly to find the word but went into the ‘Clothes’ page. I then got distracted by trying to stop Molly inspecting Ben’s shoes so closely that she risked being kicked in the face. Then I heard Ben, via his device, say ‘shoes’.

He had gone to the folder called ‘shoes’ and then had ignored the cells called boots, thongs (it’s Australian software), AFOs, sandals and trainers to select the one that said ‘shoe’.

Ben knew what I was talking about, he knew exactly which words we needed, and he found them with his eyes by navigating between pages, selecting the correct one of 18 cells on the screen, repeatedly. It’s functional, practical, appropriate communication. It’s everyday speech, only it has taken years of practice and support for this to become close to our everyday.

It’s one step further forward for a boy who has spent nine years working so hard to make himself understood. He’s 9! I’m so proud!

I was struck by a conversation I had with an Occupational Therapist (OT) when Ben was very small – she is perceptive and (typical of all good therapists) sees her work in the context of the whole life of the children she treats. She was commenting on how lovely Ben was and said that would be useful to him because he would probably always need people to help him. It’s true – both that people are always more willing to go the extra mile for people who are smiley and engaging, and that Ben depends on people going out of their way for him.

Partly as a result of conversations like that, I always try to make sure Ben looks good. I buy him nice clothes that work for him and us (jumpers we can get on/off, coats that fit in a wheelchair) and look smart after a day sat in a wheelchair. I buy things in cheerful colours that will suit his slight frame. I enjoy doing this – I do the same for his brother – but I think it’s particularly important for Ben. We have to maximise the chances of strangers seeing past a disabled child in his wheelchair and noticing the cool little kid. Of course we don’t always manage it (there are plenty of days when both our kids look like Dickensian orphans) but we try.

We are supported by my sister’s attempts to inject cool. I don’t know how many other children wear Nike Air Jordan’s over their ankle-foot orthoses.

[This could all be an elaborate excuse for me to spend more money in Scandinavian clothes shops but don’t tell James that.]

We can’t buy everything from mainstream shops but I seek out the best of the options. Ben dribbles sometimes and he wears a bib all the time so they can be changed easily without his clothes getting wet. Very early on we bought bandana bibs in bright colours which are kind of his trademark now. I hate the idea of him in baby bibs and have known to be quite stern on this front. He’s disabled, no need to infantilise him.

If he does need specialist aids, I think they should recognise his age. A really good example of this is his hand splints.* ‘I’d really like to wear hand splints’, said no-one, ever, but the designer of these thought about them being for kids, decided against making them flesh-coloured in the hope no-one would notice them, and made them colourful. It’s probably not a coincidence that they were ordered by the OT mentioned above.

But for some things, particularly equipment, there aren’t many options. It’s a constant source of frustration that things Ben needs are ugly and clunky.

I trained as an architect and care about how things look. I’d rather not have a sitting room filled with supportive chairs, standing frames and walkers but I have no choice. These pieces of kit are helpful and Ben uses them every day so we have to look at them. They are so specific that not many companies make them, so our choices are limited.

Ben’s bed is the exact opposite of the hand splints. He was growing out of his cot and needed a larger bed that could be raised and angled. Everyone agreed we needed a “profile” bed. Our local social services only supply one kind of these. It’s a full-size single mattress and looks exactly like a hospital bed. The only thing that differentiates it from an adult bed is that it has cot bumpers on the side rails which are flesh-coloured. I can’t begin to understand why anyone would think that was a good idea.

When I asked if there were any options that would be more suitable for a five year old boy, the therapist (not the one above) suggested we could put stickers on it. I have actually done this. It took an hour to stick stars on every available surface. Now Ben often has a scrunched sticker stuck to him when we get him out of bed, but the bed still looks like it should be on a ward and I resent the fact that while some boys get to sleep in beds shaped like cars, Ben gets the same bed that he recovers from anaesthetics in.

I have loads of examples on this theme: the time that I ordered an expensive specialist hood for Ben’s supportive buggy which took months to arrive and looked like something a 15 year old made in their school workshop. Actually, not by me at 15 because I’m quite good at making things, but by someone who shouldn’t have taken Design & Technology as a GCSE option. I returned the hood and wrote a letter to the manufacturer explaining why this product was ugliest thing I had ever seen and didn’t even work. Then my husband rewrote the letter to be slightly less offensive and the company said they ‘value feedback from our customers and will act on the constructive elements of your letter’. Ha!

The poor aesthetics bother me, but so does the absence of real design expertise. It’s not good enough for a buggy to just provide the right postural support to a child; that buggy is also going to be pushed by parents and folded up hundreds of times. A buggy that repeatedly injures the adult folding it and causes grandparents to spit expletives is not a good piece of product design.

There is one unanticipated side-effect of all this frustration and lack of control. When Max first needed proper winter shoes I considered giving him Ben’s old boots. They’re specialist, supplied by his physio, but essentially just boots. They’re in pretty good condition since Ben never walked in them!

James told me I was being ridiculous.

So now when Max needs new shoes (which feels like every month), I take him to a shop and choose the shoes I like most. I don’t look at the price and I don’t care whether they are the prudent choice. It is a joyful luxury to choose your child’s shoes based on looks alone and I love it.

* Ben has his hands fisted most of the time and his wrists bent outwards. The splints, which he mostly wears at night, are an attempt to stretch out his wrists and fingers to avoid him losing range in the muscles.

Son Stories by Jessica Moxham

Stories about our son Ben, his siblings and our family. Ben is 12, loves stories and is disabled. I am learning to be his ally.

Ben is 9!

The way things look