ConnSENSE

Joy Smiley Zabala, Ed.D., ATP
joyzabala@sbcglobal.net

Blink Twice
41 E. 11th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 877-BLINK-11
http://blink-twice.com
Price: $6,899

Anyone who has every seen proficient dancers do the Tango! know that much of the elegance and excitement of the dance comes not only from the correct execution of the steps, but also from the breath-taking communication between the dancers. Knowing that, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that Richard Ellenson, the creator of the new Tango! communication aid from Blink-Twice says that "the Tango! is about creating and maintaining relationships, not just about creating messages."

When I was first introduced to the Tango! several months ago, I was immediately attracted to its elegant and inviting physical design. Its small size, ergonomically rounded edges, and way-cool esthetics caught my eye. It certainly had a pretty face! I am an experienced user of "high-end" speech generating communication devices with lots of keys and lots of static and dynamic display possibilities. Therefore, I wondered if the Tango!, with only SIX dynamic display keys and four navigation keys, could fulfill its promise to provide powerful language to the young users for whom it is intended.

In the last couple of months I have had a chance to spend some time with the Tango! and to talk to others who have used it with students. I am now quite comfortable saying that the Tango! is much more than just a "pretty face". The language is there, just waiting to be joyfully discovered and powerfully used to increase participation in activities of living and learning and, most important, to build relationships between kids, their peers, parents, professionals, and, indeed, anyone they meet with whom they choose to talk..

Since it has already been stated that language and communication are critical aspects of relationship building, before talking about the features of the Tango! I would like to talk about how the language itself is organized within the Tango! There are three primary ways that the language in the Tango! is organized -- phrases; core words; and letters, most of which are accessed with two keystrokes. The exception to the two keystroke access is a group of interjections called Pop-Talks. With just one hit, a user can make comments that are useful in a variety of situations.

Since I am a proficient reader and writer, I was able to use phrases; core words; and letters immediately. Using all of them I found that I could say anything I wanted to say by combining the phrases, the core words, and the letters. It is my thought, and the experience of others who have used the Tango! with students, that many, many students can start using the phases almost immediately. The phrases are skillfully and consistently arranged around activities that are common to the interests and activities of children, and many children will be able to meet many of their communication needs with the phrases. Have a look at the "Try It" section of the Blink-Twice web site at http://blink-twice.com/ . As you work through the vocabulary included in the Tango! notice the consistency of the arrangement of the statements and comments in each activity area and how the arrangement makes it easy for users and those who support them to learn how to move about fairly quickly. As with any communication aid, initial and ongoing support, encouragement, and, in most cases, professional services, are needed for users to become proficient, especially with the generative language possible with the core words and letters. But with the Tango!, it is possible to start communicating, participating and relationship-building in-depth right away!

Now let's have a look at some of the features of the Tango! that make the language accessible, motivating, and useful to young children and the people with whom they communicate.

The Tango! has a feature called "voice morphing" that enables an adult to record language into the device and then change or "morph" the sound of the voice into a boy's or girl's voice. I am very attracted to this feature because the morphing makes the digitized voice truly that of the user and not a voice that is either totally inappropriate or overly familiar. I cannot help but think of how many kids I have known with digitized voices that sound like the middle-aged female SLP or teacher who recorded the speech. It could not be much of a surprise when the student "didn't want to use the device!" Even when more gender and age-appropriate voices were used most students wanted a voice that was their own -- not one recognizable as someone else known to him or his communication partners -- not the voice of his brother or another kid in his school OR, as a matter of expediency, a different voice every time something new is recorded. With voice-morphing technology, messages can be added as they are needed -- no need to wait until the "right" child is available to do the task. After the voice is morphed to match the student, it truly becomes his or her own personal voice.

The Tango! also includes another feature that enables the user to change his speech from a "regular" voice to a whine or a shout or a whisper. How many students have had to endure the embarrassment of seeking assistance quite loudly when a whisper would have been more comfortable and socially appropriate? How many kids have had to express anger or disappointment by saying " I don't like that" in a pleasant, sunny voice, when a whine, or even a shout, would have been much more effective and truly reflective of what was being said? With the Tango, such situations can be a thing of the past.

Another unique (currently, at least) feature of The Tango! is the built--in digital camera with flash. While to some this might at first appear to be a luxury not directly related to communication, the revolutionary thing about having the camera built in is that pictures of real things and events can be taken by the child. These can then be immediately used as icons in the device with a word or phase attached to them so that experiences can be shared. For those of us who have spent many an hour programming language into a device so that a child can tell his class about a weekend outing to the zoo or can tell his parents about the art project he made at school that day, this is a very exciting feature that can add greatly to communication and relationship building. The student or a helper can take the pictures, and then the words can be recorded and morphed to speech to match the child. Add to that the two dynamic speakers that enable the child to be heard in a wide variety of environments and off he goes with words and pictures with which to clearly share his experiences and thoughts with others. Quite a change from the way things have been done in the past!

Why only 6 dynamic keys and 8 navigation keys? Perhaps the most eloquent way to answer that would be to loosely quote Dr. Lara Ellenson, whose son Thomas is the impetus behind the creation of the Tango! When someone asked her what anyone could say with only 6 keys, she replied that for some people with motor limitations, the question might be better asked about what they could say quickly and easily with 128 keys.

It is my understanding that the thought behind the limited number of keys on the Tango! is that more children with motor challenges could be direct selectors without having to resort to scanning. Most of the vocabulary on the Tango! is arranged to be selected with two keystrokes and the ergonomics of the device are designed to facilitate making those strokes with minimal physical effort. In the phrase-based part of the vocabulary, the two-keystroke access was a breeze. In the core vocabulary part, it was a bit more challenging, but with word prediction it was still quite do-able. When spelling, two keystrokes per letter seemed somewhat tedious to me, but I believe that is because it is possible for me to create spelled words in other ways. If I were otherwise unable to access the letters, it is quite possible that I would find the consistent two-keystrokes much to my liking. I say this because I am often amazed that we who look at these things from a professional perspective sometimes make judgments about what we think might be acceptable to others based on what we find comfortable, without thinking how the exact feature we are finding unacceptable may be exactly what is needed by someone with different abilities.

For those for whom direct selection is not an option, and those who require mixed access methods, the Tango! has an array of scanning patterns and speeds. One of the things that is very nice about these options is that the device senses when one switch is plugged in and automatically goes into the single switch scanning mode. If two switches are sensed, the device goes into the two-switch scanning mode. When the switches are removed, the device returns automatically to direct selection mode. To me, this seems like a feature that will save much time and effort both getting started and troubleshooting.

Another positive feature is that the Tango!, like other devices in its class, can be used as a keyboard emulator to provide the user with access to the computer. Considering that most people for whom the Tango! would be appropriate would have difficulty with a full keyboard of very small squares, it is exciting to think that whatever methods they use to communicate verbally, they can also use to operate the computer.

In my time with the Tango! I must confess that I did not go deeply into the programming mode which enables the language in the device to be customized by changes and additions. As I mentioned earlier, making changes in the digitized speech and adding icons is absolutely a breeze, but I have heard from others that making changes in the synthesized speech and the arrangement of language in the device are among the more challenging aspects of the Tango! Blink-Twice, being aware of the challenge of making changes on the device itself, is developing software that enables customization to be done on a computer and saved on an SD card that can be inserted into the built-in SD card reader on the device for quick and easy download. This software is targeted for release in early 2007. Perhaps we will see it at ATIA in January or CSUN in March.

The current vocabulary in the Tango! is skillfully and elegantly selected and designed for young children. The language, graphics, and voices are age appropriate. (Even Sponge Bob Square-Pants is included!) I believe that the current vocabulary is probably most appropriate through middle elementary, although, for some students it may extend well beyond that. Many people have asked about other vocabulary sets for older students and adults with limited motor abilities who could benefit from the input methods and other features of the Tango! I have heard that vocabulary sets that are appropriate for other age groups are currently under development at Blink-Twice and that, once available, they can be popped into the device with ease through the SD card interface.

In summary, I think that the Tango! is a fresh face on the scene that has a lot going for it. It also has some challenges and, without a doubt, as it is used by more people, its strengths and challenges will emerge more clearly. Blink-Twice has made it clear that forward progress is an important part of their model by including expansion slots in the Tango! for " whatever may come up in the future" that is of importance. This is a good sign. I think it bodes well for users not "outgrowing" the device anytime soon, since the device will be able to grow with them when the company provides software that can make this happen.

One thing that is undeniable, even in these early days, is the "cool factor" of the Tango! In closing, I would like to share a story about that.

During the time I was working with the Tango!, I took it to a restaurant where I was having dinner with a couple of colleagues. During our dinner, we used the built-in digital camera and a feature called the Story Wizard to make a story about our evening that we could share with others. We took pictures at various stages of the evening and added vocabulary. Our waiter became intrigued by what we were doing and asked several questions. Other people waiting nearby were also positively curious about the device, wondering what it was and what it would do. It was really quite amazing how many communication opportunities and how much reinforcement we were able to obtain from others around us just because of the attractiveness of the device and their curiosity about it.

We were just three adults with a neat device of some sort. Who knows what would have happened if we had been in the company of a cute little kid who was able to not only attract attention with a smile, but also use the Tango! to talk to all those interested folks and include them in a story about the evening!

The Tango! Not Just another Pretty Face!