Help Sabella Communicate: Support for AAC Device

For anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Lauren. I am blessed to be the mother of three amazing children. My oldest is 18, in college full-time, and works nearly full-time as well. My middle child is 14 and just started high school. My youngest will be 2 years old in February.

This fundraiser is for her. My two older children were blessed with good health and no developmental problems. Unfortunately, my youngest has not been so lucky. Since birth, she has struggled. She has CMPA, FPIES, ASD (level 3) with accompanying language impairment (she is non-verbal), SPD (under-responsive), and struggles with some substantial developmental delays.

I would love to tell everyone that each day for her is great. But sadly, it isn’t. She struggles a lot of the time because she cannot communicate her needs or wants. It’s essentially all a huge guessing game every second of the day. She was speaking a few words when she was smaller. Then she stopped. She hasn’t been able to speak since. No one can say whether or not she’ll ever be able to speak again.

I have tried to teach her ASL. She’s not been able to pick up on it due to several factors: she cannot remain focused on my hands, she cannot stay still long enough to practice, and due to her ASD, she needs far more repetition than a neurotypical individual does to commit something to memory to learn it.

So, I am here asking everyone to consider helping me with obtaining an AAC device for her, along with the necessary apps for her to use, as well as a protective case and screen protector for the device. I feel the sooner I can obtain this for her, and begin to model how it’s used, the sooner she’ll find relief from tantrums/meltdowns (in which she often self-harms) caused by not being able to communicate her needs and wants so that they can be appropriately met and fulfilled in a more timely manner each time she attempts to communicate them.

I completely understand that so many of us are hurting fiscally right now. If you’re unable to monetarily help at this time, that is more than okay! All I ask is that you, instead, please take a few minutes to share this GoFundMe with others to extend our reach in hopes of fulfilling the goal for Sabella.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your time and support.