Sadie Laffan has autism, and is nonverbal. When she’d have trouble communicating with her parents, and understandably, she’d often get frustrated. To help her communicate her needs and wants, her father Rob Laffan created the app TippyTalk.
Photo: tippytalkapp on Facebook
TippyTalk is a touchscreen system that is modeled after the picture exchange communication system (PECS) board, which is a tool that looks like a picture book which helps nonverbal people communicate. With the app, Sadie could express what she wanted or felt by pointing at photos. The app would then send a text to her parents, and so they would know what she needed if they were in another room or even out of the house.
The app is more convenient than the traditional PECS board because the latter only works for people who are able to physically bring the pictures to another person. And if you’re using a physical copy of the PECS board, the pictures can be easily lost or damaged.
Click to the next page to read about how the app has improved Sadie’s life.
“TippyTalk enabled Sadie to communicate with me even if I wasn’t in the house, even if I was in a different country,” Laffan, a student at the Limerick Institute of Technology in Ireland, told Engineers Journal. “When I am in college or when I am away I get texts from her telling me how she is feeling.”
Photo: tippytalkapp on Facebook
After Sadie started using TippyTalk, her parents observed a significant improvement in her disposition.
“Her behavior has changed a lot,” he continued. “She is a typical child, she has her moments and she does have her autism-related moments, too, but it has seriously improved. Her frustration, because of her inability to communicate verbally, has dropped significantly.”
“I’m only a dad with a idea,” Laffan told The Mighty. “An idea that worked.”
TippyTalk was just recently released to the public. Visit the Facebook page to ask when it will be available where you are.
To further understand how the app works, watch the video below:
READ: Watch: Short films show how technology can give non-verbal kids with autism a ‘voice’
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