There are many things in the world that Rowan loves. This boy loves chips and dips. He loves McDonald's and walking on the ferry as we cross to Vermont for a weekend visit. But most of all, Rowan loves the alphabet. That helps him in ways that it doesn't necessarily help others.

You see, Rowan has severe autism. He can't always speak when he wants to. Whether finding the right words is too difficult, or he's too upset to speak, sometimes the words just don't come out. Even more frustrating for him, when they do manage to come out, they're not always able to be understood.

We've managed to help Rowan as much as we can with our limited resources. He has a basic Amazon tablet that has an AAC app. AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) has helped more than we can truly explain. He calls it his "talker." When the words won't come to him, his talker is there to be his voice.

But he needs more. The AAC app available to him is limited. It doesn't give us the ability to add words that aren't already available in the programmed vocabulary. It doesn't have a picture of a backyard for him to tell us he wants to play outside. It doesn't have a picture of SpaghettiOs or Lay's Dill Pickle chips, or King's Hawaiian Rolls, some of the safe foods that we can reliably get him to eat. It doesn't have a way to add thumbnail pictures of his family members; all of his grandmothers and uncles have the same icon.

The good news is that there are more advanced AAC apps and devices that do have these capabilities.

The AAC app which is widely regarded as being the best is Proloquo2Go. The price tag for an annual subscription of this app, only available on iOS systems, is $250 a year. The tablet itself, the app, and the necessary cases and harness to help him carry it safely, all add up to be more than we can currently afford.

One of the most humbling things that we do as parents is ask for help. When we ourselves are not enough. When we cannot provide enough by ourselves. While his treatment team works (literally around the clock) providing him with the best care possible, we want to be doing all we can to help his future be better than his current situation.

We wish we could give him the literal world, but for now we'll settle for giving him a voice.