Purdue-based startup's autism app named finalist for R&D 100 Award

SPEAK MODalities, a Purdue-affiliated startup commercializing technology that helps communication and language development for children and families affected by severe, nonverbal autism and other communicative challenges, is a finalist for the 2016 R&D 100 award.

"The competition among the finalists for this award is huge and all of them represent the best and most innovative companies in the R&D space," said Oliver Wendt, co-founder of SPEAK MODalities. "I'm happy to say that everyone at SPEAK MODalities works very hard to execute our mission to develop the best evidence-based speech and language therapy applications for individuals with severe autism or developmental disabilities, who do not have functional speech and language. This award nomination shows the recognition for our work and the impact we are making."

SPEAK MODalities is commercializing two apps, SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore!. SPEAKall! is designed to help children with autism who are minimally verbal, develop functional communication and initial speech and language skills by using photos and graphic symbols that represent what a child wishes to say and helps the child construct sentences from those images. SPEAKmore! is designed for children who have advanced beyond the initial app and now need to expand on vocabulary and complexity of messages. A video about the company can be viewed here.

The iPad applications were developed from research by Wendt, a Purdue assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences and educational studies who has worked with individuals diagnosed with autism for more than 20 years. Michael Zentner, Purdue ITaP senior research scientist, and Diana Hancock, Purdue ITaP commercialization director, co-founded SPEAK MODalities with Wendt.

It is estimated that up to 66 percent of the two million individuals diagnosed with autism are initially non-verbal and do not develop sufficient speech and language to meet daily communication needs.

"The SPEAKall! application has been downloaded more than 32,000 times and is used by seven leading augmentative and alternative communication centers and 16 speech and language clinics across the globe," said Zentner, CEO of SPEAK MODalities. "We are very happy to touch the lives of this many families for whom better communication is an urgent and crucial need. Providing innovative and leading-edge contributions to science and clinical practice that truly change the lives of this many individuals is very rewarding."

Earlier this year, SPEAK MODalities received a certificate of recognition from the state of Indiana for making a critical impact on the lives of Indiana families affected by autism. SPEAK MODalities also received the 2015 Best of Education Tech Mira Award from the Indiana TechPoint initiative and placed second in the 2015 Purdue InnovateHER competition. Wendt was awarded the "2015 Outstanding Research of the Year" award by the Autism Society. The company won the International 2014 GAIN-TEN Business Pitch Challenge, an award for startups that have the potential to make an impact on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2013, the SPEAKall! application was recognized with the Focus Award for outstanding contribution to furthering Purdue's commitment to disability accessibility.

"If we won the R&D 100 Award it would be a further testimonial that we are on the right track with our approach to provide a superior product through scientifically-guided innovation," Wendt said. "The R&D 100 Award provides an independent review of our technology. It is top-level validation that our offering is meeting a crucial need in the market and makes an outstanding contribution to society. The recognition from the R&D 100 Award would enable our company to gain additional traction and visibility. We look forward to the award ceremony in November."

The SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! technologies are patented and licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. SPEAK MODalities receives entrepreneurial assistance through the Purdue Foundry, a startup support center based in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, and Wendt has participated as a scholar in the Purdue Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy.

This year's R&D 100 winners will be announced during an awards dinner on Nov. 3 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Provided by Purdue University