First Whanganui child helped by Hells Pizza's 'Satan's Little Helper' initiative

Leo (left), Ryan, Lilith, Dani and Mel Hartell. Photo / Supplied

A specialist app is helping a non-verbal Whanganui child communicate.

Dani Hartell is 7 years old and was diagnosed with autism and global development delay (GDD) at the age of 2.

GDD is a condition that means Dani takes longer to reach certain development milestones than other children their age, and as a result, is non-verbal.

Dani's mum Mel Hartell said Dani first called her Mum when he was 6.

"I had to wait six years for that. When your children start talking to you when they're 1 or 2, you don't understand how amazing it is," Hartell said.

"People take it for granted to be able to talk to their kids. To be able to know exactly what he wants is massive."

Launched in 2020, Leeloo is a free "autism speech app" designed to help non-verbal children communicate.

It presents categories represented by photos. When pressed, the categories open further options that then can vocalise the desired option via a text-to-speech robot.

For example, if someone wanted an apple, they would tap the food category, then the apple and choose from either "I like apple", "I don't like apple" or "I want to eat an apple".

At the end of May, Hells Pizza's 'Satan's Little Helper' programme donated a Lenovo M10 tablet with Leeloo downloaded to Dani to help him communicate at home.

Hartell nominated Dani to the programme after being told about it by a friend, and Hell's Pizza replied with good news.

"It's one of those things where we just wouldn't be able to afford something like that brand new," Hartell said.

The Satan's Little Helper initiative started in 2016 and of the 86 children nationwide, Dani is the first from Whanganui helped by the programme.

"Dani has a massive vocabulary, he just can't use it very well to communicate with people.
It used to be single-word yelling, but this app has now allowed him to ask for specific things," Hartell said.

"The first time he used the app properly, he wanted a drink, so he pressed the button and the app talked to ask for a drink. When he heard that, he looked at me with a big grin on his face and it was so sweet I cried."

Now, they don't have to guess how he's feeling, Hartell said.

"For example, he was going through the feelings section of the app and he told me he was happy. It's been amazing how fast he's picked up how to use it."

She said the hope was the app would help Dani learn more words in the future and reduce his frustration when he couldn't communicate what he wanted.

"He can read the words out loud, but he can't use them in the way he needs to. But, if he can keep vocalising like that, I think it'll be really important for his development."