Revolutionary technology is allowing children who can�t talk to hold their first �conversations�, new research has revealed.

Revolutionary technology is allowing children who can't talk to hold their first "conversations", new research has revealed.

Young people who are unable to speak can generally only communicate through direct commands and one word answers.

But now teams from the universities of Aberdeen and Dundee have created a programme that allows them to "talk" about their day at school.

The system, the first of its kind in the world, records everything they've been up to during the day, allows them to edit a message and then play it back to their parents.

One of the leaders of the project, Dr Ehud Reiter, was inspired to come up with the idea because his own 11-year-old son, Moshe, is autistic and unable to speak.

Dr Reiter, from Aberdeen University, said: "Communicating with a child who can't talk is usually very difficult.

"My own son can only use cards or symbols and can tell you that he wants a glass of water or that he's hungry. It's frustrating for him.

"But this system means the child can take control and have a proper conversation at the end of the day.

"It gives them a real sense of self-confidence and enablement."

Dr Reiter's son was able to speak until he was two years old.

However, Dr Reiter would love one day to be able to hold a form of conversation with his son. It was through talking about this with staff from Dundee University that it led to the creation of the new programme, called How Was School Today.

The system, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is designed specifically for children who have cerebral palsy and can't talk.

It uses sensors, swipe cards and a recording device which are attached to a wheelchair.

These then monitor their every movement, as well as recording messages from people they come into contact with such as carers and teachers. At the end of the day the computer then creates a story about the day, that can be edited by the child. The child then "reads it out" to their parent, unlocking them from their world of silence.

Dr Reiter added: "It will show the kids that, despite their illness, they can still communicate.

"It will encourage them to learn more and hopefully go on to become better people because of it.

"And parents will be able to experience conversing with their child, which they couldn't do before."

Work on the project, aimed at children aged from eight to 14, has been going on for the last year.

It was tried out at Capability Scotland's Corseford School, which is for severely disabled children. Pupils Nicole Vallery and Rebecca Clelland were the first to try it out.

Nicole's mum Jan said: "We really enjoyed using it. The programme enabled her to talk easily and answer questions quickly. We were able to really interact."

Dr Annalu Waller from the Dundee University's school of computing, said: "They have to be actively involved in telling the story step by step which means that they actually interact with the person they are talking to.

"By giving these children positive experience of story telling they are actually developing the skills they need to tell stories when they eventually develop literacy abilities or abilities to do things on their own."

Plans are now in place to further evaluate the system to examine how it could be used to support children with different levels and types of impairments, and widened out to incorporate conversations around other themes.

The prototype is now to be used with more children over a longer period of time.