Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 12/99) - A $5,000 keyboard, with keys queued to blurt out essential phrases for those unable to speak, is not as advanced as a sound computer where users can create their own sentences.

But it is a step up for the Inuvik Regional Hospital, which is acquiring several devices as part of a strategy to enhance a patient's ability to express thoughts.

"For a lot of people who become (very) dependent, they've lost even the idea that they can make a change in their world," says speech pathologist Cecily Hewitt.

"So this is just a beginning thing to show them that if they put their hand down they make a change in something."

As an example, Hewitt handles a pad where, if someone places their hand on it, a toy dog starts barking, its mouth snapping open and shut. She uses the toy mostly to help young patients achieve a sense that they are able to control part of their own world. Otherwise they are led to believe others can control their environment.

Hewitt says her patients range from those with congenital illnesses such as cerebral palsy to those with degenerative diseases they contract later in life.

Once past the toy dog phase, patients graduate to using a 32-button keyboard, called the macaw, which Hewitt has programmed about a dozen phrases on.

"For some children who start with these machines early in life, they get exceptionally good," she says.

"It's sort of like extended vocal chords. One button has a picture with a glass of water on it and when someone presses the button, the machine says, 'May I please have a glass of water.'"

An advanced macaw can have as many as 128 keys.

But at the Charlotte Vehus Centre, there is a sound computer where people can type different sound combinations together to make their own sentences.

These devices are usually for people who have physically lost the ability to control mouth and throat muscles.

Hewitt says she has also been helping others who have minor speech impediments, such as stuttering or lisping.

For people who stutter, she suggests taking more time while talking and slowing their thoughts down so it's easier for them to get what they are trying to say out.

Hewitt says, often, people do not know they are lisping. She says they stick their tongue out further than necessary and the sibilants, or hissing sounds, get exaggerated.

"I also see some people for accent reduction if people are having trouble understanding them," she says of a therapy covered by medicare.

"It's usually for people whose first language is not English and have trouble with English sounds. Some are happy that way but others want to work on their accent."