The Phonicstick: a joystick to generate novel words using phonics

Abstract

Current Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCAs) give little support for playing with sounds and blending these into words. This paper presents a joystick that can be used to access six different letter sounds (phonics) and blend them into short words. Seven children (five with some degree of physical and/or learning disability) showed their ability to use the device after only one 20 minutes introduction session.