Mayo teen’s app could help change thousands of the lives

THERE’S an app for everything nowadays. But one that could improve the speech of 32,000 people on public waiting lists for speech and language therapy? Dana Carney from Barnacarroll has made one that has done just that – and she’ still in school.
Dana is as bright and articulate a 14 year old you’ll come across.
Aimed primarily at young children, her app, TalkTime, uses games to encourage speech development in its users. Out of 16 families who have trialled the app, 12 have reported significant improvements in their child’s speech.
With the help of Teen-Turn, a pioneering extra-curricular STEM programme delivered at Mount St Michael Secondary School in Claremorris, Dana’s app scooped two awards at the recent Scifest.

Motivation
SHE was already well stuck into the Teen-Turn programme when she came up with the idea to develop TalkTime. At the time, a relative of hers – who we’ll call Síofra – could not access any form of speech and language therapy.
“She was about four at the time when her parents and family began to notice that she was falling a bit behind in her speech compared to other children her age. So they thought it might be time for some sort of intervention,” Dana tells The Mayo News during a recent visit to Mount St Michael.
“It was nothing but trouble. It was waiting lists and they hadn’t a clue what to do with themselves. They were struggling, they had no support while they were waiting and all they were told was, ‘You just have to put up with it, it is the way it is’.”
For those who don’t get the early speech-and-language intervention they need, the consequences can potentially be lifelong. “They can really withdraw socially, it can lead to bullying, a lot of self-confidence issues even later in life,” Dana explained.
This motivated young woman decided it was time to act and began work on TalkTime shortly afterwards. Síofra eventually got access to therapy, by which time she had already benefited from the app.
“There was an instant, really, improvement in her self-confidence. She interacted better with her peers, she’s able to communicate her needs to her family,” says Dana.
“Nearly instantly everything changed for her; it was just that she needed that help to feel more confident in herself.”
Other children aren’t so lucky, though.
“Back when I was doing my research there was about 15,000 on waiting lists for initial and 32,000 on waiting lists for any form of speech and language therapy, which really shocked me.
“Because that’s 32,000 people; 32,000 families who are all feeling this way and feel like they can’t help their child. That’s really depressing for a family, and it obviously takes a toll on everyone, not just the child. It’s a really hard situation for anyone to be in.”

‘I’m doing this!’
AS one of the few schools in the country to offer computer science as a Leaving Certificate subject, it should come as no surprise that Mount St Michael’s is producing students like Dana Carney.
With computer science classes taking place outside normal school hours, even boys from nearby St Colman’s College show up in the evenings for classes.
Teen-Turn, which is specifically aimed at girls, is a perfect complement to that.
Mount St Michael – which, interestingly, operates a successful ‘no phones’ policy during school hours – has become a regional hub for the programme, with participants ranging from First to Sixth Year from both inside and outside the school.
Rather than through traditional rote-learning, the learning is largely self-directed and project-based.
For Dana’s project, she conducted interviews with speech and language therapists and undertook an extensive volume of research before developing TalkTime with the MIT App Inventor.
And between the days out to Dublin for competitions and everything else, there’s plenty of fun to be had with Teen-Turn as well.
“It’s amazing that we have Sixth Years still doing it to be honest,” says Stephanie Hogan, Lead Mentor with the Teen Turn programme in Mount St Michael. “We had three Leaving Certs going to BT Young Scientist and category winners this year, so it just shows you it’s more than just STEM. It’s building relationships amongst each other and connections for the future.”
“To be honest, you make friends for life from it too,” chimes Dana, “people you notice in the corridors you can say ‘hello’ to in this school. You meet girls from all over Ireland really and other people, mentors and stuff.
“Honestly, it’s a brilliant experience. Sometimes I’m sitting there and I’m like ‘I’m doing this!’,” she smiles.
For all it’s evident benefits, TalkTime is still ‘a very loose prototype’, according to Dana.
In time, she would like to keep developing it to make it more appropriate for older children and adults.
She and her classmates are also developing an app called Her Sport Hub, which aims to help teenage girls find ways to play sport and address the reasons so many teenage girls quit organised sport activities.
The Mayo News Sport department is likely to get back to her about that at some stage.