Olivia's Story: 20 to 800 Words in Two Years
Sometimes a mom's words are the most powerful. Here's the story of Olivia's experience with Gemiini, as told by her superhero mom, Christine H.
"My daughter Olivia is now 7.5 years old with a diagnosis of Down syndrome and apraxia (and from 2012 to 2014 she was on chemo for leukemia treatment). Apraxia has been very hard for her. She has struggled to say sounds and words!
We've been using Gemiini for two years. Before using Gemiini, I had taught my daughter to read sight words, so she could identify words, but not say them. She also had many different types of therapy: Prompt, Talk Tools, Beckman Oral Motor, and she had learned over 300 signs in sign language. Still speech eluded her.
At 5.5 years old she had about 20 words. I was VERY worried! In the middle of October 2014, I saw a program advertised on Facebook called Gemiini. It is video modeling and was geared toward kids with autism. I knew about the research on video modeling and had seen improvements with Olivia when I used it. I have a VERY open mindset when it comes to trying new things. I figured I'd give it a try and if it works GREAT! If not, no harm, no foul. Just out a few bucks. To give Olivia a voice is worth it. So I jumped in.
I was VERY impressed with what I saw. First they have over 70,000 videos!! Second, all of the videos feature mostly kids with a few adults. Olivia LOVES watching kids! Third, they have videos of the child's mouth (only!) saying the word. I KNEW this was going to be a hit. Fourth, I can create video sessions from the 70,000 video choices to create a session that EXACTLY suits Olivia! I don't know of any other program that I can do that with. I created videos to target exactly where Olivia is weak. She responded in the first week. I will never forget, early on, when she was in the back seat of the car and was saying "dog, dance, deep, etc." from the D-word video I made that she was getting therapy in the car! I was over the moon!
Two years later, she now has over 800 words and speaks in short sentences. I have been VERY dedicated in using Gemiini every day; we have only missed five days. We use it exclusively on the iPad.
Gemiini has changed our family's life. Just last week my mother-in-law watched Olivia and she told me that she understood 90 percent of what Olivia said and they had a fun time together. I remember her telling me a year ago she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to understand Olivia before she died. I can now have mini-conversations with my daughter. She can use basic sentences to communicate her wants and needs and to answer questions. I asked her who is at Disneyland the other day and she said Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald.
She then said, 'I love you mommy.' It doesn't get much better than that."
-Christine H.