Reviews

Limited only by creativity of user
Speech & Language Therapy in Practice, Spring 2000

Melissa Lombard and Zoe Atkinson are impressed both by the possibilities of this evolving software for all types of clients with communication difficulties and its low price.
Clicker 3 is an on-screen concept keyboard with speech, pictures and writing. An in-built word processor allows the user to write letters, words, sentences or pictures and has simultaneous speech feedback.

The programme appears on-screen as boxes within a grid. The user must set up the number and dimension of cells and their subject matter. Up to 100 cells can be used and colour-coded within any grid and these can be linked to any number of grids. A basic tool bar and simple punc­tuation can be accessed easily on screen via a mouse. All work can be printed to hard copy.

Clicker 3 has been revolutionary in the field of education because of its combination of word processing, the ability to record one’s own speech, graphics and the ability to change the language of preference. It also has uses within the realm of speech and language therapy, particularly when work overlaps with education and the national curriculum, enabling speech and language thera­pists and teachers to work together on communi­cation and literacy with a shared focus. It is a valu­able tool for the speech and language therapist given its impressive range of symbols, graphics and voice. The flexibility of the package, together with its capacity for personalisation builds the bridge from a strongly educational focus to its use within the speech and language therapy field.

Dynamic
Clicker 3 provides a good user guide, an on-screen tutorial, web-site and e-mail support as well as Clicker centres with phone and e-mail contacts. It is a very dynamic piece of software and has had many changes since emerging on the market fol­lowing suggestions made by users.

The setting up of Clicker 3 assumes user knowl­edge based on an educational background and is easily used within this environment. There are many new resources available this year designed for use with Clicker 3, for example, The Picture Dictionary which offers ideas based on the National Literacy Strategy and is also useful for all symbol users.

Clicker 3 is more difficult to adapt to a speech and language therapy focus as there is limited information on how to achieve many of the ideas presented in the manual and tutorial. However QuickFire, a newly released package designed for use with Clicker 3, contains grid material specifi­cally designed for communication work and spans four different skills levels. It contains vocabulary grids set up using specific topics such as ‘food and drink’ and ‘clothes’ and uses Mayer-Johnson PCS symbols. Combined with QuickFire, Clicker 3 offers so many varied facets that it is limited only by the creativity of its user!

Clicker 3 includes Microsoft Speech (synthesised) with a choice of three voices, as well as having the option of recording your own voice. Whilst the pronunciation of the synthesised speech is poor, there is a facility to adjust the supra-segmental aspects of speech permanently. The word process­ing component scrolls up as you write. If large writing or symbols are used, the beginning part of the sentence disappears from view before speech is activated by the full stop. The end result is that you do not always have visual and auditory feed­back at the same time…

Personalised
There are over 2200 graphics and a picture-as-you-type option. Graphics can be selected from the Mayer-Johnson colour PCS symbols, Rebus, Makaton or the Crick Picture Library (over 400 curriculum related pictures). Additionally, pho­tographs or relevant pictures can be scanned in for a more personalised touch.

Clicker 3 provides excellent value for money and is a ‘must-have’ resource for all ages. Speech and lan­guage therapists who are just starting to get their heads around technology will find it well worth the extra money to buy some or all of the four different levels of QuickFire. The more IT-literate speech and language therapists will be able to make their own topic grids using the Clicker 3 programme alone.

Pre-requisite knowledge to using this software includes:

• Understanding concepts of left/right for mouse control
• Understanding use of save/open/new for word processor use
• Use of full stop to end the sentence (to initiate speech production of the written sentence).

The CD would appeal to the following range of users:

• Preschool and school aged pupils, and those with special needs across a wide range of ability
• Children with language delay or disorder
• People with physical disability
• People learning English as a foreign language
• Adults with a learning disability
• Adults following a stroke, suffering from aphasia and dyspraxia
• Clients following a head injury•Clients with a mild to moderate visual impairment

Melissa Lombard is a senior speech and language therapist and Zoe Atkinson an instructor (Le Geyt Training Centre) with Health & Social Services, States of Jersey

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