RFID Gives Voice to Nonverbal Children

The Logan ProxTalker can enunciate up to 10,000 different words, and includes a feature enabling teachers and other operators to add a new word by placing a Sound Tag on a reader, inputting a command to record, and speaking the new word that the Sound Tag will represent.

ProxTalker.com has loaned several of the devices to New York Public Schools District 75 for testing, Gorman says. In one classroom in Queens, a half-dozen children between the ages of five and eight have been sharing four of the machines for the past two months, along with 100 Sound Tags for each unit, though she says the potential to improve communication for the children displayed itself on the first day they began using them. "It took off so much better than we imagined in the first couple of minutes," she states. The students began with one word, then started putting multiple words together and communicating with each other. "That is our goal—for nonverbal kids to communicate with each other."

Glen Dobbs, ProxTalker.com's president

The system improves on the traditional PECS systems, Gorman says, because it allows for a much larger volume of words from which to choose, and because the voice makes communication quicker and easier. It offers a good interim tool, she adds, for children who would like to communicate more directly than PECS allows, before they grapple with a much more sophisticated computer-based system intended for higher-functioning nonverbal children and adults. According to Gorman, the district will continue testing the system during the next school year, before determining whether to purchase the machines for the children in Queens, or for those in other schools in the district.

Other customers of the Logan ProxTalker, Dobbs says, are predominantly speech, behavioral, psychological and occupational therapists, schools, special educators, families, pediatricians and hospitals. The device costs approximately $2,400, and comes with 80 preprogrammed Sound Tags and 20 blanks with which to record other words. If desired, a customer can purchase additional tags.

"It's great to be in an industry where the product you're making is changing people's lives for the better," Dobbs says.