Avaz, Inc., based out of Chennai, India has partnered with LanguageCraft, a Portland, Oregon-based clinic to create a new tool for children with language disorders. Apple featured this app as #1 in “Best New Apps.” It is the first special education application to be recognized in that position.
Called FreeSpeech, this technology is an iOS app that takes a new approach to language learning by allowing children to see the deep structures of grammar in a fun, interactive way. No matter how they interact with the app, they will always create sentences that are grammatically correct, even if writing from Spanish to English.
Originally intended as an augmentative communication app for children without oral language, it is now being used by educators serving a wide range of students, from those who are deaf or hard or hearing to those who are simply learning English as a second language.
CEO Ajit Narayanan and team cracked a problem that linguists and speech pathologists have been working on for ages: How to give access to language – real, compositional language – to children who did not develop the ability to speak.
