I have seen Voice Colors-Billys' Story and the story told about Billy resonates for the community of children with autism. Children must find a voice, a way to speak more than words or labels, so they can communicate their needs and even their wishes.
Voice Colors shows this process for one child. Billy has had multiple interactions with hospitals. Coming to our hospital for procedures, Billy brought his communication devices. Without it we would have had a traumatic experience. With it, Billy was able to understand our plans, he was able to state his needs following the testing and we could then go forward with his understanding and cooperation. Many educational pathways stress the acquisitions of verbal language in autism. Although a wonderful goal, some will not achieve it, others will have frustration along the path with no way to express it. Finding a proper system to communicate it so important. This is a welcome video to discuss this process.
Timothy Buie, MD
Harvard Medical School
Massachusetts General Hospital for Children
The Crotched Mountain School has shown Voice Colors on multiple occasions. When possible we have also engaged Eve, Billy’s Mom, to provide us with an opportunity for follow up questions and conversation. Each showing has been a great experience of learning, sharing, and perhaps most importantly, a renewal of belief in the positive outcomes and personal development that the highest quality teaching and support can achieve. Between showings we keep reaching out to Eve and Billy and engaging them in dialogue about communications improvement, vocational skills building, transitions support, health challenges, and more. Every discussion is a new opportunity to build curriculum and methods and to improve our practice. We so appreciate all that they have given to us and hope we too have contributed to their journey.
Don Shumway
President and CEO
Crotched Mountain Foundation
Voice Colors is an incredible documentary of Billy’s journey to be an independent communicator. I know Billy’s story well as I was his teacher. Billy came to my classroom as a 5 year old non-verbal boy. Billy did not develop spoken language nor did he naturally develop conventional gestures to communicate with, such as gesturing or pointing. Because of Billy’s social deficits, Billy did not then know that other people in his world could help him meet his needs; get him what he wanted. And, so, because Billy did not have these skills, such as pointing or knowing to get someone’s attention for help, he presented with many unconventional, challenging behaviors as a young boy. Throughout those years, Eve and her husband Matt knew that Billy needed to learn to become an independent communicator. Eve saw all of Billy’s challenging behaviors as his attempt to get his needs met and saw he needed to be taught conventional language and social skills. Voice Colors illustrates Billy’s journey to learn to socially connect with others and to communicate his thoughts and feelings. Billy has learned that communication is a reciprocal process and that socially connecting with others is very rewarding. Billy’s parents have always had a strong vision of their hopes for Billy. Because of their incredible commitment to their son, Bill is now an independent communicator and lives a quality life. Voice Colors illustrates Billy’s heroic journey.
Sue Constable
Director, Autism Spectrum Disorders Support Center
Rhode Island Technical Assistance Project (RITAP)
Dept of Education OSP
255 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-8984
Eve Megargel and Susan Sutherland have created an inspiring documentary about Billy, a 16 year old diagnosed with autism and his quest to become an independent communicator. The film details an array of systems and devices which Billy and his TEAM used to overcome the communication obstacles he faced and ultimately overcame, and his ongoing journey toward independence. Voice Colors details how an intentful, reciprocal and meaningful system was developed for a primarily non-verbal communicator. It has a profound message for both current and prospective educators: when you think it can't be done, it can.
Elizabeth Stringer Keefe
Co-Director, Graduate Special Education
School of Education
Lesley University
617.349.8206
I had the great privilege to view Billy and his remarkable progress as it was delineated in the film at a conference on February 10th, 2007. I have worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist for the last 19 years. For the last 9 years, I have had the opportunity to specialize with children having Autism Spectrum Disorders. With regard to the film, simply, Billy demonstrated remarkable improvements with regard to his spontaneous and appropriate communication abilities through the use of his voice output communication device. More specifically, the fact that his communicative intent expanded concurrently with his receptive and expressive vocabulary was an extraordinary bonus. As Billy progressed, his understanding and use of picture vocabulary increased remarkably. Use of PECS at the beginning of his life was an important precursor to his communication achievements. Clearly the combination of approaches that has brought Billy to this place was the key to his success. There were aspects of ABA, contextual learning, incidental learning opportunities, and speech-language therapy approaches. In all honesty it was difficult to watch staff wait Billy out for an exact response (e.g., waiting for him to tap their shoulder before utilizing his device), but this approach was successful as Billy benefited from clear expectations. He also benefited from the fact that the rewards for his success were intrinsic in the task at hand. In other words, he earned exactly what he wanted by communicating his needs appropriately, thereby increasing his motivation to be accurate in his responses. I would recommend that this film be seen by any parent or professional who is hoping their child will be able to expand their communication skills beyond PECS and picture communication books. The fact that for many children use of pictures and voice output devices can augment verbal language abilities as well, is another reason to support this extraordinary approach to communication.
Jennifer A. Leighton, MA, CCC-SLP
LFAC/LADDERS
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
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