A decade of caring for his profoundly autistic son has inspired a Barnsley father to launch a new business.
Stephen Lodge, whose son Callum was diagnosed with autism in 2003, has launched Speaks4me®, a device which helps people who suffer from a partial or total lack of verbal communication skills as a result of an impairment or disorder.
The portable device uses a combination of picture exchange through ‘dragging and dropping’ on-screen images, photos and symbols with a speech engine to help people communicate their needs and feelings. Stephen was inspired to create Speaks4me® when his son Callum, now 11, was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of four. Callum also has severe learning disabilities and is completely non-verbal.
Speaks4me® has additional healthcare applications to help people with other conditions that impair communication such as stroke victims. The device can also be used with non-healthcare related applications for educational purposes. The technology is capable of verbal communication in over 20 languages and therefore can help to educate users whose primary language is not English.
Speaks4me® has already attracted significant interest from the market with completed sales to special needs schools and UK charities. Speaks4me® has a strong ethical stance and Stephen has pledged to donate a share of any profits to a number of charities supporting people with autism, stroke victims and learning difficulties in the UK and overseas.
The launch of Speaks4me® has so far been entirely self-funded and Stephen is now looking for investors to help finance the next phase of development and rapid business growth. To help prepare his company for investment, Stephen is taking part in ‘Investing in Health’, an Understanding Finance for Business programme, which will give him the knowledge, advice, tools and resources needed to attract equity funding from national and international investors.
Stephen, who had a 20-year career as a senior project manager with a number of global blue chip companies, is confident for the future. He said: “Speaks4me® has been a number of years in the making and we’re now ready to fully launch to market. There has already been significant interest in the device from a number of different companies and individuals and I’m hoping that the versatility of the technology and the wide range of applications available will make it an attractive proposition for investors.”
The Investing in Health programme is managed by Grant Thornton with support from BITECIC and Quotec. Lisa Ward, manager at Grant Thornton, who is supporting Stephen in attracting equity investment said: “Stephen is passionate about his business and about supporting people like Callum to communicate. The company is at an important time in its development and we’re confident we can find an investor who will help make Speaks4me® a real success.”
The programme forms part of Yorkshire Forward’s ongoing strategy to support the development of the healthcare technologies industry in Yorkshire and Humber.
To find out more about the Investing in Health programme or to register your interest in taking part, visit
www.investinginhealth.co.uk
For more information on Speaks4me® visit
www.speaks4me.com