Helping Riona Find Her Voice

Eight-year-old Riona is a determined and spirited little girl with an infectious love for Peppa Pig, and despite facing significant challenges including autism, epilepsy, and severe learning disabilities, she approaches each day with remarkable resilience.

Life for Riona and her family requires careful balance, and because she is non-verbal, communicating her needs can lead to frustration, particularly when she doesn't have the means to do so. Everyday activities that many families take for granted require careful planning and support.

Riona's dream was to receive an iPad with a language app that would transform her ability to communicate. Before this, she relied on a book filled with pictures to create simple sentences which had lots of limitations. An iPad with innovative speech-generating software would give Riona something magical: a voice that would always be there, and one that everyone could understand.

The difference has been extraordinary. As Mum shares, "Riona is able to approach our friends, family, school and members of the public to ask for anything she would like. Just like our own voices, the device speaks for her and makes it perfectly clear what she is asking for."

The impact on daily life has been transformative. "Riona is able to enter a soft play centre and ask for her favourite cake, just like any other child her age," Mum explains. "This has resulted in less frustration and behaviours that challenge, and a more accessible community for Riona."

For Mum, the most precious moments are deeply personal: 

"Although Riona has never spoken a word, she is now able to use her device to say 'I love you' with a voice, to say 'good morning' to her friends and to ask for her favourite ice lollies, things we so often take for granted. This has meant so much to Riona, but a great deal for me too, to give Riona the opportunity to have her voice heard."

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