Participants in iBookclub: Sebastian
Sebastian and Rosarita are faithful participants in the iBookclub of Pasadena from the first meeting in the library. They demonstrate the enrichment of reaching into the community as the community is waiting for an opportunity to join in literacy and be with you.
Sebastian and Rosarita heard about the club from Terry Kappe, a speech language pathologist he knew in elementary school in his community. She kept in contact with the family and sent them an email as the invitation to join in the meetings. Sebastian agreed with his mother that they would give it a try. They have attended every meeting for four years either in person or on zoom. The second Monday of the month at 3 p.m. they promptly connect with the participants whom they have come to know and who have come to know and love Sebastian and Rosarita.
Where had Terry learned about the iBookclub of Pasadena? She participated in the SCAAC-N gatherings where speech language pathologists and educators collaborated to understand better how to meet the needs of students and families as they used augmentative and alternative communication. Open to the entire surrounding communities, SCAAC-N was formed as the Southern California Augmentative and Alternative Communication-Network. She knew to recommend Sebastian acquire a speech generating device with eye gaze as well as use an ipad with proloquo2go. Sebastian seemed to prefer the simpler and yet speech generating application which he accesses with two head switches.
How does Sebastian prepare for the iBookclub topics each month? He begins by reading books from the library and/or accessing books on Bookshare, a free public website with a choice of hundreds of audio books. Then he formulates the messages by accessing two head switches attached to his wheelchair. When he presses the one on his right, the scanner on the device goes from row to row of a group of letters of the alphabet. When the row is highlighted, he selects the row by pressing the switch to his right side. Then Sebastian scans the columns to selects the letter he wants to use to spell every word. When all the letters are put into words, he can listen to the words if he prefers or go on the complete the sentence by activating the switches again on his ipad. Gradually his words are combined into paragraphs, and the story is told. He saves his presentation as they work. The leader participants of the bookclub meetings count on his preparation to start off the discussion every month whether on zoom or in person.
What a vital contribution he makes! He states the objective facts of the story and with total honesty and forthrightness comments on the feelings of the main characters. i.e. When discussing Indigenous People Day in October, Sebastian reported on Christopher Columbus and the voyage he made with the three ships, however the way Indigenous people were treated by these explorers was exploitative and reprehensible. Sebastian relates to present day events as he reports on baseball stories of current series. He insisted on going to the Jackie Robinson statue at the baseball stadium where he celebrate the 42 on Robinson’s uniform that matched his own 42 birthday. Together they advocated for accessible bathrooms in a popular local restaurant which they frequented as a family.
From their worthwhile contributions to the iBookclub of Pasadena, Sebastian and Rosarita did not hesitate to have his photo reached out to the 200,000 speech language pathologists when we sent it in to be published in the Leader magazine, a publication of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. As the community reached out to Sebastian, he has reached out in concrete ways into the lives of others in his community.