Leo was very sociable and hugely enjoyed the company of others. He worked hard to unlock his own ability to be involved, to be heard and interact with everyone around him. A key element to this was the continued development of his communication skills. He used his eyes and sounds to be able to tell others about how he was feeling, give direction towards what he wanted to do and operate with a genuine sense of independence. This allowed an even greater quality of life and a true sense of inclusion

Instrumental to this was the Ace Centre. It has been so supportive of Leo and really helped empower him to communicate.

Ace Centre is a registered charity providing Assistive Technology and Augmentative and Alternative Communication services for people with complex needs. They offer assessment, training and information services across England, with a focus on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Assistive Technology (AT), delivered by our multi-disciplinary team of specialist teachers, occupational therapists, speech & language therapists with the support of technical and administrative staff.

They believe everyone should be given the opportunity and the tools they need to fulfil their potential.

They have been hugely supportive towards Leo throughout his life and we are so grateful for all that they have done.

We are taking donations that will be used to create bundles of equipment (some switches, switch adapted toys and some symbol based vocabulary to support the activity) that could be specifically loaned out to families. Ace currently have equipment that can be loaned to professionals (SaLT’s and OT’s) to use with their own caseloads, but nothing that we can provide direct to families. They would like to include fun stuff, games/toys etc that could be easily used by families in their home environment. This could be launched at an event that they are planning to hold in the new year, likely a weekend or school holiday day for families with young children like Leo to come and play with switches, switch adapted toys etc and meet other families locally - a family fun day! By creating a loan ‘bag’ it would mean that families would be able to access equipment for their children that might not necessarily be available through a statutory funded service or where their children are using similar equipment at school/nursery, but it can’t go home.

In doing so, we wish to continue for Leo to give back to others and enable those that need it the ability to further access the world through communication.