Eye gaze therapy gives a voice to young non-verbal patients
FORT WORTH, Texas - Children who cannot speak are learning to communicate with the help of therapists at Cook Children’s Rehab Center in Fort Worth.
The children can use a device similar to a tablet computer that tracks eye movement. They select pictures, words and phrases by moving their eyes.
Marisa Sanchez said the therapy helped her daughter virtually speak her first words at age 6.
“Going into this journey six and a half years ago and not being able to have your 6-year-old communicate with you, that’s hard. We just, our goal is for her to be able to tell us everything she wants to tell us and say. Whether it’s good, bad or indifferent we want to hear it from her,” she said.
Sanchez said her daughter Isabella has gone from knowing four words to 24 words since she began the therapy in February.