Make me speak: A mobile app for children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Cerebral Palsy is a common neurodevelopmental condition. The condition may present itself in many different kinds of classification. Cerebral Palsy is always showing many deficits such as mental retardation, speech, language and motor problems. This research was inspired from Elisya, a nine-year-old girl with Cerebral Palsy since born with an auditory and speech disorder including motor problem that affects her mobility. Her senses and brain do not fully coordinate and this creates a communication issue between Elisya and her parents. The aim of this research is to provide a mean for children with Cerebral Palsy who can’t speak to communicate significantly with their parents and carers without using any sign language. There are plenty of assistive tools in the market and this includes the Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices for people with speech disorders. However, there is no app found in Malay language and the content can’t be personalized. Make Me Speak is an Augmentative and Alternative Communication tool using mobile technology which is developed to help people with Cerebral Palsy to communicate with people around them. Make Me Speak is not just for Cerebral Palsy community but for anyone with speech disorder. It is developed in dual language – Malay and English with a personalized content. React Native mobile development platform is used to create the app. React Native helps in building cross platform mobile apps. Hence, it saves time and cost to build mobile apps on multiple platforms. Usability test was done on Elisya and it was found that she is able to manage the app and chose the right buttons to express her needs. This research is in line with the social innovation initiative for people with disabilities as described in the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (RMK-11).