📘HELP📘

Puerta Verbal is an augmentative communication system that combines images, text, and sound to facilitate communication without the need for oral language. The user can communicate by touching images, and the application displays an enlarged card with the selected word or sentence and also pronounces it aloud. It also allows the adult to speak to the device so that the application recognizes the word, displays the corresponding image, and says it aloud, facilitating learning through association: heard word → image → sound.

The main screen is the control center of Puerta Verbal. It includes:

• Home: Return to the main screen at any time
• User: Selection and configuration of user profile
• Microphone: Activation of voice recognition
• Sentence Mode: Creation of complete sentences
• History: Record of recent communications
• Settings: Personalization of the application
• Caregiver Mode: Access to advanced functions
• Quick Bar: Immediate access to frequent needs
• Categories: Organization of vocabulary by themes

The user selection function allows creating and managing different personalized profiles. Each user can have:

• Profile photo: For visual identification
• Custom name: For text identification
• Adjustable text size: According to visual needs
• Customizable icon size: For better visibility
• Specific configurations: Such as voice speed, volume, etc.

This personalization allows adapting the application to the specific needs of each user, improving the user experience and communication effectiveness.

The microphone function allows the adult or caregiver to use voice recognition to interact with the application:

• Activation: Press the microphone button to start listening
• Recognition: The application identifies the spoken word
• Search: Automatically locates the corresponding image
• Display: Shows the enlarged image on the card
• Pronunciation: Plays the sound of the identified word

This function is especially useful for associative learning, where the user can relate the heard word to the visualized image and the played sound.

Sentence mode allows building more complex messages by combining several icons:

• Multiple selection: The user can select several icons in sequence
• Progressive construction: Each icon is added to the sentence being formed
• Clear display: The complete sentence is shown on the card
• Complete playback: The application pronounces the complete sentence
• Clear: Button to erase and start a new sentence

This function is fundamental to allow more elaborate communication, expressing not only basic needs but also thoughts, desires, and more complex experiences.

The quick access bar provides immediate access to the most frequent needs:

• 🚽 Toilet: To indicate the need to use the bathroom
• 💧 Water: To express thirst or need to drink
• 🆘 Help: To request immediate assistance
• 🛑 Stop: To indicate the need to stop an activity
• 🍽 Eat: To express hunger or desire for food
• 🤕 Pain: To communicate discomfort or physical discomfort

These buttons are always visible and accessible, allowing quick communication in emergency situations or frequent basic needs.

Categories organize vocabulary into thematic groups to facilitate navigation:

• Food: Food, drinks, and elements related to nutrition
• Places: Frequent places such as home, school, park, etc.
• Emotions: Feelings and moods
• Activities: Daily actions and tasks
• Objects: Commonly used items and utensils
• People: Family members, friends, and professionals
• Concepts: Abstract ideas and relationships

This thematic organization facilitates the rapid location of necessary concepts and helps in learning vocabulary by semantic fields.

Items are the basic communication elements in Puerta Verbal:

• Visual representation: Each item has a clear and recognizable image
• Associated text: Each image is accompanied by its corresponding text
• Sound: When pressing an item, its pronunciation is played
• Enlarged card: When selecting an item, it is shown in large size
• Customization: Possibility to add custom items

Items constitute the basic vocabulary of the system and can be expanded according to the specific needs of each user.

The large card is the main visual element that appears when selecting any item:

• Visual enlargement: Shows the selected image in large size
• Highlighted text: Presents the corresponding text clearly and legibly
• Repeat button: Allows playing the sound as many times as necessary
• Educational function: Reinforces the association between image, text, and sound
• Focus: Centers attention on the communicated concept

The large card is fundamental for both communication and learning, as it provides a clear and focused visual and auditory stimulus.

Each word in Puerta Verbal can be expressed in five different ways depending on the context and communication need:

• Simple: The basic form of the word (e.g., "water")
• Detailed: A more descriptive form (e.g., "I want water")
• First person: Expression from the user's perspective (e.g., "I want water")
• Need: Formulation expressing a need (e.g., "I need water")
• Positive: Formulation in positive terms (e.g., "I like water")

This variety of expressive forms allows adapting communication to different contexts and nuances, enriching the user's communication possibilities.

Caregiver mode is a password-protected section that allows managing the advanced configuration of the application:

• Restricted access: Only available with a password to prevent accidental modifications
• Vocabulary management: Allows adding, editing, or deleting items and categories
• Advanced personalization: Specific settings to adapt the application to particular needs
• User management: Creation and configuration of user profiles
• System configuration: Technical and behavioral settings of the application

This function is aimed at adults, caregivers, or professionals who need to adapt the application to the specific needs of the user.

The history function records and displays the user's recent communications:

• Time record: Stores communicated expressions sorted by date and time
• Review: Allows viewing what the user has recently expressed
• Analysis: Facilitates the identification of communication patterns and frequent needs
• Sharing: Possibility to share the history with professionals or family members
• Personalization: Configuration of the history retention period

The history is a valuable tool to understand the user's communicative evolution and adapt the vocabulary and intervention to their real needs.

Settings allow personalizing various aspects of the application's operation:

• Volume: Control of the sound level of the synthesized voice
• Rate: Adjustment of pronunciation speed
• Pitch: Modification of the low or high pitch of the voice
• Language: Selection of language for voice synthesis
• Auto close: Configuration of the automatic closing time of the card
• Continuous microphone: Activation of continuous listening mode

These settings allow adapting the application to the specific preferences and needs of each user, improving the user experience and communication effectiveness.

The zoom function allows adjusting the visual size of interface elements:

• Icons: Increase or decrease the size of icons
• Text: Adjust font size for better readability
• Complete interface: Global scaling of all visual elements
• Presets: Predefined levels for different visual needs
• User-specific personalization: Independent configuration for each profile

This function is essential to adapt the application to different visual abilities, personal preferences, and usage situations, ensuring accessibility for all users.

The backup function allows saving and transferring the application's configuration and content:

• Export: Save the entire configuration and vocabulary to a file
• Import: Restore the configuration from a previously saved file
• Transfer: Share the configuration between different devices
• Backup: Protection against accidental data loss
• Templates: Possibility to use predefined configurations

Although it is a technical function, it is fundamental to guarantee the persistence of personalization and developed vocabulary, as well as to facilitate transfer between devices or users.

Puerta Verbal includes a "Life Stages" system that allows adapting vocabulary and content to different age ranges of the user. This function recognizes that communication needs change throughout development.

How does it work?

• Selection by range: You can choose from 6 predefined stages:
  • 0-6 years (Early childhood)
  • 6-12 years (Childhood)
  • 12-18 years (Adolescence)
  • 18-30 years (Youth)
  • 30-60 years (Adulthood)
  • 60+ years (Elderly)

What changes in each stage?

• Adapted vocabulary: Words, phrases, and concepts are adjusted to age
• Appropriate images: Illustrations reflect interests and contexts of each stage
• Gradual complexity: The difficulty of concepts increases with age
• Relevant topics: Topics important for each life stage are prioritized

Practical use:

• Allows a young child to see basic words (food, toys, family)
• A teenager accesses vocabulary about studies, friends, technology
• An adult finds work, household, social terms
• An elderly person has access to words related to health, memories, family

This function ensures that Puerta Verbal grows with the user, always offering relevant and age-appropriate vocabulary.

To get the maximum benefit from Puerta Verbal, it is recommended:

• Daily use: Incorporate the application into the daily routine
• Adult modeling: Caregivers should use the application to communicate with the user
• Real vocabulary: Include words and concepts relevant to the user's life
• Respect the message: Always attend to and value what the user communicates
• Coordination: Maintain consistency between family, school, and therapy
• Patience: Allow the user to become familiar with the system at their own pace
• Positive reinforcement: Celebrate the user's progress and communication attempts

These practices favor the development of communication skills and maximize the tool's effectiveness as a means of expression.

The use of Puerta Verbal should be guided by fundamental ethical principles:

• Right to communicate: Communication is a fundamental human right
• Respect for autonomy: The application exists to support, not to control
• Valuation of all forms of communication: All expressions have value
• Privacy: Respect for the user's intimacy and confidentiality
• Focus on abilities: Focus on what the user can do, not on their limitations
• Participation: Involve the user in decisions about their communication

Puerta Verbal is a tool to amplify the user's voice, never to replace or direct it. Its use should always empower the user and respect their dignity.

Puerta Verbal is an augmentative communication tool created to facilitate the expression of people who, for different reasons, find difficulties in oral language. It is not a game, nor a simple set of images, nor an isolated educational resource. It is an alternative voice that allows communicating needs, emotions, decisions, thoughts, and intentions in real situations of daily life.

The effectiveness of Puerta Verbal depends not only on its design or technology but fundamentally on how it is used. The application has been conceived under an essential principle: the person is at the center. The tool must adapt to the user, their life stage, their context, and their real needs, and never the other way around.

Puerta Verbal does not replace human communication. It complements it, amplifies it, and makes it possible when other paths are not enough. For this reason, its use implies an ethical responsibility on the part of families, caregivers, and professionals. Communicating is not only emitting words; it is being heard, understood, and respected.

Good use of Puerta Verbal

• Personalize vocabulary according to the user's real needs, avoiding generic configurations that do not reflect their daily life.
• Gradually introduce new words and categories, respecting the person's pace and avoiding visual or cognitive overload.
• Always listen to, respect, and validate what the person communicates, even when the message is repetitive, unexpected, or difficult to interpret.
• Use the application as a communication support tool, never as a substitute for human interaction, eye contact, listening, and emotional relationship.

The adult, caregiver, or professional has a key role as a model: use the tool together with the person, show that their message has value, and respond coherently to what is communicated.

Bad use of Puerta Verbal

• Overloading the interface with too many options or categories at once, making decision-making difficult and blocking communication.
• Imposing its use instead of offering it as an alternative, canceling the communicative initiative.
• Ignoring, correcting, or reinterpreting the user's expressions, invalidating their communicative intention.
• Using it as a control device instead of empowerment.

When communication is used for control, it ceases to be communication and becomes imposition.

The necessary balance

The key is balance: take advantage of its potential without forgetting that it is a means, not an end in itself. Authentic communication always goes beyond any tool.

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