Our KESS2 research collaboration with the University of South Wales, focused on teaching non-verbal children how to speak, has made the headlines again!
You can view the news clip below.
Our interdisciplinary approach combining behaviour analysis and the TalkTools speech and language technique has helped many families over the years, including our own. Dan (who has verbal dyspraxia and autism) was 12 when we started using the speech techniques. We had been told by speech therapists that if a child doesn’t talk by six, they’re not going to learn to speak. Using TalkTools, we were able to teach him to shape his mouth into a range of different sounds. He can now say 120 words. He’s never going to be conversational, but he can use words to request all of his basic needs – a tremendous achievement.
But Dan’s story is just one among many. We’ve seen numerous children who, with this combination of behaviour analysis and these tools, have developed speech even when everybody said they wouldn’t be able to. We witness these remarkable transformations daily and receive heart-warming feedback from the families we assist. Now we get to be at the heart of building the evidence-base. Contributing to the growing body of knowledge for these techniques is so important to us. Being able to spread the word about the potential of behaviour analysis and TalkTools really is the cherry on top. The more people we can help or inform, the better.
ITV Wales recently spent an afternoon filming with us at Skybound HQ for the story. Well done to our PhD student, Sophie Bradbury for being interviewed. Sophie has been diligently working behind the scenes for the past three years, driving our research project forward and we’re proud to see her efforts acknowledged as we draw closer to publishing our results.
Stay tuned for a series of upcoming blogs that will delve deeper into our research and provide a glimpse into Sophie’s journey as an integral part of this project.
