A Tayside couple who lost £23,000 in the housing crash are on a high-tech mission to unlock their autistic son’s speech.
Little Cameron Mackenzie is classed as a non-verbal autistic and has the speech capabilities of a 12 to 18-month-old baby.
Being forced to communicate through pictures and gestures has become distressing for the Carnoustie five-year-old, who faced the daunting prospect of starting school this week.
Cameron is beginning to grasp a form of sign language called Makaton, designed for people with impairments and his parents Graham and Farrah recently stumbled across an iPad app to support the initiative.
With no money for the expensive tablet due to their financial troubles, the couple are appealing to the public to help them take advantage of a swap scheme which allows 185 old mobile phones to be traded as payment.
Graham, 35, said his son was immediately engaged by the Makaton iPad programme after trying it on Farrah’s brother’s device.
He added: “We run a support group on Facebook called Autism Support Angus and Dundee and are linked up to many other autism support groups.
“It was there we came across the link to Hearts and Minds Challenge iPad Scheme.”
The scheme accepts most old mobile phones under 10 years old but will not take dummy handsets.
Graham and Farrah, who live in Isla Avenue and also have three-year-old twins Craig and Freya to provide for, said it’s “incredibly frustrating” not to have the money to help their son.
Anyone who wants to help can hand in their old mobile at Sturrock Computers, High Street, Carnoustie.