A few people have asked me if Quinns was nervous/ excited about starting school nursery. The answer is I have no idea. I’ve not really considered this before either. Thinking about it now though we just live in the present with Quinns.

He is really good at communicating with us. He can tell us using facial expressions, sounds and body language what he thinks of something here and now. He can choose between options he’s given i.e. which t-shirt to wear or what he’d like to eat. But how can he tell us what he thinks about future or past events?

Weekly sessions with his speech and language therapist (SLT) teach him how to use his eyes to point at symbols. We have pictures and symbols at home that we stick to an e-tran frame to ask him questions.

We’ve been working on feelings including happy, sad and hungry for a while and we’ve recently added some bodily functions that may cause him issue. I want him to be able to tell me that he has a dirty nappy. I’m still hopeful that eventually he’ll be toilet trained and am already excited at the prospect of hi-tech toilets! But I’m perhaps getting a bit ahead of myself.

Right now communication is key. We are focusing on building up his lo-tech eye gaze skills. These have already proved essential for the eye gaze computer that Quinns will be getting soon. That’s right, a computer he can work with his eyes! Camera sensors use his eye movements as though they are the mouse. Not only will he be able to play games but he’ll also use it as a communication tool.

So hopefully with his developing eye-gaze skills and the tech available he’ll be able to tell us more than just he needs to burp!