Communication Devices for Children with Cerebral Palsy

In this article, we want to highlight the importance of communication in the lives of all people, the difficulties that people with cerebral palsy may encounter, and the resources (material, training, and attitudinal) that allow their development.

For the adequate personal, social, intellectual, and work development of cerebral palsy in children, it is necessary to have these resources. This can be seen as one of the most pressing societal challenges to be addressed today.

Regarding the technical resources necessary for the development of communication, we can find different elements that we will group as follows:

Symbols, text or photo management programs

There is software that allows the creation of communication boards, teaching resources, stories, and materials that include pictograms, texts, or photographs. In the centers that care for people with cerebral palsy, the high availability of useful tools of this type by all the professionals who care for the person with cerebral palsy is essential, since communication and learning opportunities are constant.

Communication boards with voice output     

These are also called multi-message communicators. These electronic devices allow the association of recorded messages to each of the pictograms on a communication board. Through the incorporation of the voice, it is possible to speak with people who do not know the use or vocabulary of the communication system, to be able to intervene in group conversations, to have a greater sense of the communicative act, greater autonomy, and satisfaction that enhances participation and the learning.

Dynamic communicators

Dynamic communicators are an effective and limitless solution for your communication: the alphabet and symbols. The main limitation of communication boards with voice output is their difficulty managing large vocabularies, which are necessary to maintain natural communication. Therefore, in many cases, they are used for particular situations, such as acquiring new vocabularies or educational activities.

By facilitating access to communicators as early as possible, improvements are achieved in the acquisition of language itself and in the creation of communication strategies that will help increase the personal autonomy of people with cerebral palsy.

About This Author

Trishla Foundation Best Cerebral Palsy Treatment Center in India Joined: October 23rd, 2019