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We all start to use our language by learning it. By training. Normally there is no problem in this. But we all require assistance, and as much as we can get, to become good at it. Also technological assistence. Books, for instance, are a great help, and they are technology.
Adults who learn a foreign language generally find the process harder, and require more support. Technology is more essential, because there is less human assistance. But, although it is difficult to learn a new language, especially as an adult, this is not a problem.
The Yak-Yak software turns out to be a useful new development in technology. One can certainly benefit from using it, while having no problem whatsoever. It is simply a new tool, among others, to deal with a generally difficult task.
However, it is often the case that a techological development arises as a solution to some specific problem.
There are language related disabilities, which make it difficult, or virtually impossible, for a person to spell, or write, or read, or even to speak. Dyslexia is probably the most widely known, aphasia much less so. There are widely different degrees of severity with such conditions, ranging from the disadvantage to the disability.
The Yak-Yak computer program was originally created to handle these language problems, especially the most severe ones. Before, there was nothing.
It is an assistive aid, a tool. It is not a "method", or a "system", or a "philosophy". As with any technology, it requires some instruction to use it properly. For instance that someone checks the manual, who can then instruct the daily users. This of course depends on the circumstances.
Yak-Yak has been available in the Scandinavian countries for some years. At hundreds of institutions and schools, as well as in private homes, it now assists users in finding ways to use their language, at least to a certain extent. Including users challenged by dyslexia, or by aphasia, in a disabling degree.
Yak-Yak was developed to assist - and therefore also with the assistance of - a young woman, who following a stroke suffered global aphasia and oral apraxia. After two years this patient could speak less than a hundred words, her writing was not understandable, and she could not read at all. She later recovered much of her language.
During this development phase, some 4-500 language professionals attended demonstrations and seminars. The insights of speech therapists, special education teachers, and psychologists were taken into account, and now benefit the users. Special attention was given to what the future users themselves had to say. Also ordinary children learning to read and write for the first time.
Yak-Yak can therefore assist a wide range of users, including those, who for straightforward reasons do not master a language they desire to use.
Research reports, user testimonials, press.
