Northeastern professor Ralf Schlosser has dedicated his career to breaking down communication barriers faced by minimally verbal autistic children.
Ralf Schlosser, a professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders at Northeastern, demonstrates his award-winning research that uses everyday devices iPads, Apple Watches, etc. to help non-verbal autistic children and other disorders communicate with the world around them. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
When he started working at Northeastern 25 years ago, that meant enlisting the help of expensive, dedicated, specialized and somewhat stigmatizing technology.
More recently, Schlosser has been a leader in employing mainstream mobile technologies such as iPads and animation to allow children with severe communication impairments to do everything from requesting a glass of water to delivering a lecture on a school topic.
“The field has shifted to general consumer-level technologies, like the iPad, smart speakers and smart watches. It helps them communicate better and it’s non-stigmatizing because you and I also might be wearing a watch,” Schlosser says.
“About 30% of autistic children have little or no functional speech and benefit from augmentative and alternative communication strategies and devices. That’s the population I work with,” he says.
