They’re talking about it! > Stories
IME and SESSAD Odyssée, Orvault.
I attended a presentation about Papoo at La Roche sur Yon in March or July 2007. I’m a speech therapist and I work with autistic people in the SEHA department of a IME and a SESSAD for children with development troubles. I’m interested in augmentative communication devices because lots of children in the SEHA department can’t speak. We use pictograms with communication binders but they don’t benefit from a vocal synthesis. Papoo seems to answer the needs of autistic children since it can be adapted: it goes from the choice between two images to the composition of simple sentences. It is totally customizable and therefore, we can have an access to a vocal synthesis without modifying the communication code of the child. It is not bulky, easy to use for the children but also for the person who create the communication tables. It is strong, which is important when it comes to children welcome at the IME.
Emmanuelle HAVARD Speech therapist
Réseau Nouvelles Technologies (New Technologies Network) from the French Association for Paralized.
The founder is at least someone who listen to what others have to say, since there are huge differences between the product I see today and what I saw in June at the Autonomic show. He has listened, modified, evolved and improved his Papoo. From an ergonomic point of view, the product is well thought regarding the basic confines. This is a simple product, they voluntarily put aside the gadgets while keeping the functionalities people like in it.
Elisabeth Negre Alternative communication advisor RNT
Carémeau Nîmes Hospital
Relationship with Smartio:
Great when it comes to the presentations of the Papoo made to the several medical and medico-social teams of the CVA and brain-injured people. After the information has been broadcasted in the local press, they came quickly in the several departments… The product matches a real need for patients who have troubles to handle other communication devices. This can be explained either because the products are too bulky, because the patient has troubles using the alphabet to express himself or because he has visual troubles.
Dr Frédéric PELLAS Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist(DEA)
Toulouse.
I’m Marjorie Bos and I’m a speech therapist. The first time I heard about the Papoo was during a presentation made at the Grau du Roi hospital, in the department dedicated to patients in rehabilitation post CVA. I’ve been interested in this product straight away. Indeed, the vocal synthesis available on the market essentially aim at people using wheelchairs, so the devices are generally bulky and cannot be easily moved. Moreover, these vocal synthesis are rather made for children and not for aphasic adults to whom we can only offer a communication book. Papoo is very easy to handle, a patient whose mobility is reduced can bring it with him wherever he goes. A couple of month after this presentation, one of my patients, aphasic since 5 years, wasn’t doing any progress. I contacted the Grau du Roi hospital to have some feedbacks from speech therapists who tested it with their patients: they were really positive. That’s why I got in touch with Thomas Hugues to see if he could lend me a device to help my patient. He’s been using it for almost 2 months. He is still in a training phase but he was so pleased and enthusiastic to receive it that his attitude boosted the work done together. He feels more like working with us because he discovered a new way to be understood. We put into the Papoo daily life pictures, sentences matching the images. For the first time last week, my patient asked for a beer whereas his home care had to do it for him for the 5 past years. Papoo enables him to regain the independence he lost. And we hope this is just the beginning.
Marjorie BOS Speech therapist
