Enea Experts TAKK application to support children with language difficulties
TAKK (Tecken som Alternativ och Kompletterande Kommunikation, or Signing as Alternative and Supplementary Communication) is a method used to support communication with children, young people and adults whose speech and/or language development is abnormal or delayed. The method involves signing key words in a discussion while saying them at the same time.
Bam SPRÅKTEKNIK is publishing a book based on this method, titled Teckenkommunikation GRUNDORDBOK, or BASIC DICTIONARY of Sign Language. The book has been approved by many county councils as an aid for face-to-face communication. This book is mainly sold to parents who have children with these problems. For the most part, speech therapists training parents on TAKK methods will be selling the book.
ENEA Experts in Stockholm, Sweden have been working with Bam SPRÅKTEKNIK to develop a Smartphone app based entirely on the Basic Dictionary. Like the book, the app contains more than 1500 terms to look up. The app can display the terms in alphabetical order or by category, and it also has other basic functions which make it very easy to scroll through the terms.
“The biggest advantage of the application is that it’s a tool which you can carry anywhere and which helps you to communicate with your children in everyday situations. Flipping through a book is hard sometimes; if you’re out and about, for example, or when you’re on the bus. This is probably when people will find the app most useful,” says Barbro Magnusson, authorised speech therapist at Bam SPRÅKTEKNIK, Lund.
Quotations about TAKK from visitors to trade fairs:
• Parent: “On Android at last! Now I can communicate with my son when we’re out and I’ve forgotten a sign.”
• Rehabilitation speech therapist: “It’s great for me, I can open the app and look things up quickly no matter where I am. I’m looking forward to telling people on my signing course all about it!”
• Remedial teacher: “I find it really fantastic when I’m out at preschools and I don’t have the book to hand.”
• Teaching assistant: “Brilliant! I’m new here, and I don’t know as many signs as my user knows. We’ve got a book at the center, but I always carry my mobile with me.”
The app is available from the Android Market and costs SEK 50. To download the app, go to the Android Market and search for TAKK. The app will be available for iPhone soon.