The child need not know English or any other language to be able to use the device. Those who know English can use the text mode and those who don’t know, can use the picture mode to communicate their daily needs.
Avaz is very easy to learn. The text mode can be in Qwerty mode – so for a child who is familiar with the computer keyboard, he can use Avaz as a keyboard and he would hardly take a few minutes to get used to it.
For the picture mode, the child is usually able to get the concept within a few minutes. But it may take longer (1-2 months) to learn the locations and meanings of all the pictures. Although the pictures are arranged intuitively, it would still repeated practice for the child to become proficient in navigating through the pictures.
Yes! Avaz’s biggest strength is its customizability. We ship a default picture dictionary with about 400 sentences. But we encourage a teacher or parent to add and remove words from it as needed. We also have a number of advanced dictionaries on our website, which you can download from our website and install in the device.
For children whose cognitive levels allow them to communicate through text, the text mode is the best way to teach them Avaz.
We would recommend trying to use the text mode. Avaz Text mode features ‘intelligent word prediction’. This means that it automatically tries to figure out which word the child is trying to type based on the first few alphabets and the previous words in the sentence. It is remarkably accurate. With predictions, the child doesn’t have to spell out a full word – the first few letters may be sufficient.
We have also seen that using Avaz sometimes helps a child improve spelling, because Avaz facilitates sight reading, and it also gives audio feedback.
The battery once charged can be used for more than 4 hours.
Suitability of Avaz
Avaz is ideally suited for persons with speech impairment and it enables them to communicate. It would be suitable for non-verbal persons with disabilities like cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation, aphasia, hearing-impaired, Downs Syndrome etc.
Avaz can be used by paraplegics and quadriplegic by connecting it to an appropriate switch. The switch may be a contact-switch or a non-contact switch. The switch can convert gross muscle movements to mouse-clicks and enables the selection of a picture or text in Avaz.
Many schools around India have used Avaz for intervention with autistic children. Avaz helps autistic children in two ways. First, it allows them to communicate their wants and needs even if they are non-verbal and visual. This removes a great deal of frustration from their lives. In this way, it is similar to flash cards and picture exchange cards. Second, since Avaz is a speech output device, it sometimes triggers imitation in autistic children. Some therapists think that this could eventually lead to the child developing verbal capabilities.
Yes, Avaz may be useful for children with profound LD, or children who have LD in combination with other disabilities. Avaz dictionaries combine a visual image, its textual representation, and audio – this multi-modal reinforcement helps the children learn new concepts and vocabulary. Avaz’s word prediction feature (in text mode) also helps children who are very weak in spelling to create sentences by sight-reading.
Children are naturally inquisitive, and may want to ‘explore’ the device instead of ‘using’ it. We strongly recommend that Avaz be used under supervision for the first month or so, so that the child is able to understand that it is a utility device and not a toy. Avaz also supports some features that help children who have attention problems. For example, the number of pictures per screen can be decreased to 6, 2 or even 1. More choices can be slowly introduced to the child.
In this case, you are the best person to judge. Sometimes, behaviour issues are borne out of frustration arising from an inability to communicate. We have seen children whose behaviour has improved significantly after using Avaz. We have also tried to make Avaz robust to drops and falls by providing it inside a sturdy case. Avaz may survive the occasional temper tantrum of a child. But it is better to avoid using Avaz if the safety of the device or the child may be compromised at any time.
This is a misconception that has been conclusively disproved by more than 20 years of research in developed countries, where AAC devices are now the standard intervention for the communication impaired. AAC devices do not create dependency. They do not prevent a child from learning to speak. They do not have any adverse effect on the child’s development. On the contrary, by using AAC devices, children pick up cues to non-verbal communication much earlier. This helps them integrate better into society and interact better with their caregivers, teachers and classmates. Even for children who are capable of developing speech in their later life, a voice output device stimulates the desire to speak by producing a speech output of the child’s desires. Some therapists think this will stimulate imitation by the child, and produce speech abilities.
Avaz can be introduced to the child aged 5 years and above when the child is able to communicate needs and wants, either through picture-pointing or through gestures. The earlier a child is introduced to an AAC device, the easier is his adaptation to communication. You may consult his school teacher or speech therapist for determining this for your child.
Tailoring AVAZ for your Child
Avaz offers various settings, which can be used to personalize Avaz to your child’s needs. For example, the text size and picture size are adjustable – Avaz has Large size Text and larger pictures (from 2 per screen to 10 per screen) for children who have poor eyesight. For those who want audio of every keyclick, Avaz can be set to do just that.
Avaz comes with a PC-based software called the Avaz Adapt, which is meant for customizing and tailoring Avaz to suit each child’s unique needs. Using the tool, you could upload your own pictures/ photos that the child is familiar with, record your own voice, in any desired language, and restrict or enhance the dictionary as per the child’s vocabulary needs.
Avaz comes with a PC-based Adapt that has a provision for audio recording / uploading audio. You can associate various pictures with related audio in Kannada (or any specific language) using the Avaz Adapt. This can then be uploaded on Avaz.
AVAZ in the Indian Market
No – this is India’s first commercially available AAC device. The equivalent devices from abroad are from Tobii, Dynavox, Prentke Romich, Proloquo2go etc.
Currently there are more than 100 children around in India who are using Avaz. Avaz is being used in 12 schools across 8 states of India. You can view a list of institutions that currently use Avaz by visiting our Installations page.
Connectivity and Usage Scenerios
Yes. You can connect Avaz to a PC using the USB cable that is supplied with the device. When you connect Avaz to a computer, it shows up as a USB drive. You can use this interface to copy new dictionaries, take backups, and upgrade the software on Avaz.
No. Avaz has the hardware features required for games, music, movies etc. But Avaz is meant to be a communication device. We don’t think it is appropriate to use it as an entertainment device. If you feel otherwise, we would love to hear from you. Please let us know.
Not directly. You can connect Avaz to a PC to take out the data from it, and then print out the data from the PC.
It is one of our goals to enable Avaz to substitute a scribe. Currently in the text mode, the student can use it to write his responses and save them using the Quick save slots. If connected to a printer through a PC, the scribe can take a printout of these responses. A big stumbling block is that currently, the various education boards in India do not support the use of an assistive technology like Avaz during board exams. We need your help to lobby the Government to allow these technologies in a broader setting.
Yes! Since we have some default dictionaries loaded, the child could be taught concepts through the device. But we would strongly recommend that the device be used as a communication aid first, and as a teaching aid only after the child has become familiar with it first.
Every non-verbal child is different. But we have got very promising results from the pilot studies that we conducted around India, and every day we get new and promising feedback from our users. Parents are very happy to discover new aspects of their children that they had never known before – they are getting to discover their child’s preferences in food, dress etc. They never knew that their children are noticing and observing so much around them and that they have so much to say.