Katie Finds Her Voice
Imagine you’re a bright little girl. You don’t want milk for dinner. You want juice, or chocolate milk, or regular milk heated. But you can’t speak the words.
That was the case for Katie, whose cerebral palsy limits her speech to a handful of words. A simple request could turn into an elaborate guessing game that was stressful for the preschooler and her parents.
“There was frustration there for Katie,” says her mom Sarah, noting that Katie’s twin sister Emily – who doesn’t have cerebral palsy – was talking a mile a minute.
That changed when Katie was fitted with speech technology "a talk box" at Bloorview Kids Rehab. A screen with pages of kid-friendly words paired with pictures was mounted on her wheelchair so Katie could press the buttons she wanted to activate the machine’s voice – giving her access, over time, to thousands of words.
“It’s a huge freedom for her,” Sarah says. “It opened up a whole new world.”
Speech technology is a form of augmentative and alternative communication used by children who have little or no speech. At Bloorview, teams that include speech and occupational therapists, technology consultants and engineers work together to customize systems for each child.
Thanks to the generous support of donors, Bloorview develops assistive technologies and specialized equipment to promote independence, so children with disabilities participate in life. Specialized medical equipment and aids, such as communication devices, are key to independence for children with disabilities.
In November 2009, Barbara Underhill, former Canadian gold medal figure skater and star of CBC's Battle of the Blades, unexpectedly dropped by Bloorview after receiving a beautiful fan letter from Katie and Emily. Both Katie and Emily were thrilled to see their favourite figure skater walk into their classroom. When Underhill entered the classroom, Katie promptly hit the keys displaying "I love Barbara!"
Katie, Barbara Underhill and Emily
