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March 2001
What we call a Hoover is of course a vacuum cleaner – possibly made by ElectroLux, or Dyson rather than by Hoover. When the BigMack first appeared, it was an object that had never existed before, and BigMack – which is actually a trade name for one device – somehow become the generic term, widely used to stand for all devices of this type. But hey! – things have changed. If you limit your concept to just the BigMack, you may be missing out. CALL now has a range of simple tech voice output devices available for demonstration and loan. There are two main types:
1. Single message voice output devices, for example:
- BigMack (£99), One Step Communicator (£115) both made by AbleNet and sold through Inclusive Technology, Liberator, QED and others.
- Talking Buddy (£75) made by TASH, and sold through Cambridge Adaptive Communication , QED and others.
- Chipper (£65) made by Adaptivation and sold through QED
2. Sequenced message devices, for example:
- Step by Step Communicator (£130), Step by Step with Levels (£165) both made by AbleNet and sold through Inclusive Technology, Liberator, QED and others.
- Sequencer (£92) made by Adaptivation and sold through QED
Single message devices allow you to record and store only one message at a time. They are very simple and useful in a number of situations. For example – calling for attention, saying ‘good morning’, bringing a news message home from school, and to school from home, saying the repetitive line in a familiar story, nursery rhyme or song (or just saying ‘turn the page’, while teacher is reading from a book). These devices should be used repeatedly throughout the day, with the message changed to match whatever activity is in progress -it is a terrible waste to use a single message device just once a day!
Sequenced message devices allow you to record and store a series of messages one after the other. For example, you can program in a whole story, and have a child retell it line by line or page by page. You can store a rhyme or song, or a recipe, step by step, so a non-reading older child can take themselves independently through a food preparation activity. It could be used to allow a child to deliver their lines in a play or concert. Recording messages into sequenced message devices takes a little more planning and time (and staff training), so you might keep a device the same for longer, rather than changing it. You can have only one set of sequenced messages in the Step by Step, but two in the Sequencer and several in the Step by Step with Levels (the most complicated to programme), so you can switch between stories/songs etc. without having to re-record.
One device only is not much use if you are trying to encourage interactive communication; it is always much better to have at least two - or ideally, more - in a classroom, so that a child can work with a partner or in a small group, where each learns to listen to the other, take their turn, and time their communication. Special classrooms ideally need to have both single and sequenced message devices available, as they are useful in slightly different ways. Using a mixture of both types of device strategically, children of different levels of ability can interact well within the same activity.
With more than one of each type, you need to think about colour-coding them so that you can tell at a glance which is single message and which is sequenced, as the different versions look identical. CALL has yellow, green, red and blue single message devices, but all our sequenced message devices are purple. Put strips of hooky Velcro on the bottom of all devices to secure them at any angle to mats or mounts as required (more practical than screwing them down, which is possible with all but the Talking Buddy).
Why choose one type rather than another?
All the devices are good, and there is sometimes a good argument for sticking with what you know, but there are small differences between them that might just be significant, for some users:
The BigMack is the biggest and heaviest device (500 gm compared to the smaller Chipper at 275 gm) – which might be useful or a might be a disadvantage. The BigMack and all the ‘Step’ devices have a base/rim around the outside of the active surface, which means that children with very small hands/short fingers sometimes - especially if they cannot lift their arms up - cannot reach the active surface reliably but are left scrabbling at the inactive rim.
 The One Step, Step by Step and Step by Step with Levels are all set on a raised, angled base. This can help access for some users – but can be exactly wrong for others! This base makes them much less flexible than the other devices, because they cannot just be stuck on to a Maxess mounting block at whatever angle suits the user. All the Step devices also have a plastic base plate that allows you to link them together in a curved line, if you wish to do so (but it obscures the ‘quick look’ programming instructions on the base of the device, and can be a fiddle, or keep getting lost if you don’t want to use it all the time).
 The Talking Buddy has its active surface right up to the edge – but seems slightly stiffer to press. The speech quality of the Talking Buddy seems slightly less distinct.
 The Chipper and Sequencer are smaller, lighter and cheaper than the other devices. They are square in shape, which means that – unlike the other round devices - two or more can be mounted side by side, close together, or they can be easily mounted vertically/sideways on their edge, to allow for a user to slide a hand sideways to operate them, rather than having to lift and lower their hand to press down.
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