Everyone deserves the opportunity to communicate. And the team at Cherry Trees go to all possible lengths to help ensure that each child who visits is given every chance to express themselves, and to say and do what they want on their own terms.

 

A new technology is now being used at the Cherry Trees house that is helping the children make truly remarkable strides in how they interact – from choosing what they would like to eat and what TV programmes they want to watch, to cracking a joke with staff.

 

The new device, from technology company Tobii Dynavox, allows the children to communicate via eye control (known as ‘eye gaze’), touch screen or a switch. Unlike paper-based communication sheets that can be used to allow children to express their feelings and requests, the Dynavox system allows significantly more sophisticated communications, as Louise Hall, carer at Cherry Trees, explains: “We’re currently mapping a profile for each of the children, detailing their individual interests and preferences. We’re also inputting information about the whole of Cherry Trees on the software, from each of the activity rooms and what the children can do in them, to what food they can choose from the kitchen. This means that children can communicate really quite complicated requests – one girl for example, rather than just signalling ‘I’d like a biscuit’ was able to select an icon for a bowl of custard and a jug of cream to let her carer know she wanted ‘a custard cream biscuit’.”

 

The children are also able to express a lot more of their personalities. “One of our young lads has a really great sense of humour. He loves teasing the care team, and telling them when they’re ‘being annoying’.” It can be used by all the children, whether they are pre-verbal, have limited vocab, or might find it hard for other reasons to express themselves.

 

Dynavox doesn’t just help with communication, it also connects the children with the world around them, whether that’s choosing a YouTube video or game to play, or connecting with Alexa.

 

The technology is so instinctive, it’s very easy for the staff to learn and to teach the children to use it, while children can also learn by experimenting independently or by seeing their friends use it.

 

It can also help the children’s development. It can, for example, help them understand cause and effect or give them additional challenges that can be programmed into the system. Because children can use it to find things that are interesting to them personally, it incentivises them to explore more. Depending on the capabilities of the child, it can be programmed to be as simple or as complex as it needs to be.

 

At over £10,000 per unit, the equipment doesn’t come cheap. Louise and the team carefully benchmarked it against other products on the market to make sure it offered the best value in terms of the capabilities of the system and the ongoing support after purchase. But Louise is convinced it’s worth every penny. “Some of our children have them at home or have access to one at their schools, but if they can’t bring it with them to Cherry Trees or if the battery has run out when they get to us in the afternoon, it’s like taking away their voice.”