Technology Helps Disabled Children Find Their Voice

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Technology Helps Disabled Children Find Their Voice

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=38121

Laptop computers that combine features from popular toys with

innovative technology have rapidly accelerated the learning and

communication ability of disabled children, Penn State researchers

say. The technology could in the future be adapted to victims of

major accidents and the elderly as well.

According to Janice Light, distinguished professor of communication

sciences and disorders at Penn State, more than 2 million Americans

are unable to use speech to communicate, and children are a major

component of this population. " Kids learn and communicate through

speech by trying out new words and forming sentences, " says Light. " f

they can't do that due to problems such as autism, Down syndrome, and

cerebral palsy, then it is going to be difficult to learn how to read

and write, make friends, and communicate their needs. "

Computer-based technology that provides speech output is increasingly

being used to assist such children in communicating but Light feels

it has not yet fully served its purpose.

" The design of many of these systems is really based on how adults

think, and the machines are complicated and children take years

learning how to use them, " adds Light, who presented her findings

today (Feb. 20) at the 2006 annual meeting of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science.

" As a result, the children miss several years of a crucial learning

period and fall further behind normal children. Due to their

impoverished learning environment, they're really locked in, in a

way, " she adds.

Light and her colleagues are currently working on a five-year

research grant to redesign assistive technology to improve the

ability of these children to learn and communicate in a more

meaningful way. The key, she says, is to come up with technology that

is appealing to children, easy to learn and simple to operate.

" We've actually brought in teams of young kids, posed a problem to

them of a child who isn't able to walk and talk and set them loose to

build an invention to help such a child, " says the Penn State

researcher. The feedback tells researchers the kind of features

children value.

" The real key is having fun. And the kids talk about that as they

build their inventions. They say things like 'it has to have smile

power', they like a lot of bright colors, and want to laugh, and make

burping sounds, " she notes. As an example of such technology, Light

shows a colorful toy-like laptop computer fitted with a touch-

sensitive screen, using a Visual Screen Display, embedded with " hot

spots " that the children can press to produce sounds of laughter and

words, and to learn language.

Since very young children are not readers, the idea is to take a

child's experiences and represent it interactively through digital

photos of the child, the family, or storybook cartoons, she says.

The technology is already proving its mettle. Some two and three-year

olds are showing signs of becoming early readers. And early trials

with 15 and 25-month old children show an improvement of about 20 to

50 times in communication skills, as well as a significant increase

in vocabulary.

These are probably the youngest children in the world using such

technology, according to Light, and she adds that future trials will

involve infants with disabilities as young as 8 months old.

" Our goal ultimately is to put the system in front of the child and

from the first moment, the child is able to intuitively use it, " says

the Penn State researcher.