Helping Callum to find his voice

For five-year-old Callum Jefferson, from New Waltham in Grimsby, struggling to communicate these needs to his family was a reality. But now thanks to a special device, called a voice output communication aid (VOCA), his voice is being heard.

Callum has quadriplegic cerebral palsy which can cause speech and communication difficulties and means he spends most of his time in a wheelchair.

The VOCA, which has been fitted to his wheelchair for ease of use, has 84 buttons and works by the user selecting images on the screen to create a sequence, which produces sentences.

The device can store frequently used phrases and even photos; so when he presses the button with a picture of his teacher, Louise Hubbard, on it the device says “good morning Miss Hubbard”.

Callum’s mum, Helen, says it has made a huge difference to their lives. “Callum was able to say basic words but couldn’t string a sentence together; it was very frustrating for him. He is very bright but he couldn’t show it, he couldn’t show his understanding. The device has helped him so much; he can now express himself, he can now tell me what his opinions are, what he wants to do. He has a sense of humour and that really shines through now.”

Every Monday morning at school Callum has a session with his speech and language therapist, Kimberly Ward.

“He’s come along a lot with the help of the aid. Before he could say some words, but now he is linking sentences together and his speech is coming on really well; he has a spoken vocabulary of about 20 words.

“He’s very intelligent and his understanding of language is developing ahead of where we would expect him to be for his age. We made sure Callum got a higher level and more high-tech device, because we wanted to give him the best chance.”

Helen says the device is a vital part of his school day and that the teachers at New Waltham Academy have been very supportive; they’ve even had special training on the device.

“We’d never seen or heard of anything like it before. Callum is very good with it and in fact he’s shown us a lot and we’ve learnt a lot just by playing with it. It means that in class he can talk and take part in the discussions with his peers,” says Miss Hubbard.

Callum’s communication aid cost £7,000 and an additional £1000 to fit it to the wheelchair. It was funded jointly by Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the local council.