TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Bilingual students in Tucson are waiting up to 10 months for speech therapy assessments. A new app aims to cut that time by helping pathologists assess students in 15 minutes.
A nationwide shortage of speech pathologists who can assess bilingual children has left students waiting for the help they need to avoid falling behind in school.
Marco Hidalgo, who grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, founded Vozariz to address the problem.
“Being bilingual is a superpower. We’re able to navigate two worlds, go between two countries very easily, two economies, and provide a service,” Hidalgo said.
Nationwide shortage affects local students
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a nationwide shortage of 4,300 speech-language pathologists.
School districts are required to assess students, but Hidalgo said it can take months to then get speech therapy.
“That sparked our interest in developing an app that can be easily used by speech language pathologists anywhere in the United States to assess bilingual children,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo’s wife, a University of Arizona professor, did the research, developing the “Flip-Task.” Hidalgo converted it into an app form and named it after her.
The app asks questions in Spanish and English and then provides a fluency rating. A speech pathologist can use the results to determine a student’s language development without needing to know Spanish.
“Simply assessing someone and understanding that they don’t have a communication disorder – they’re simply learning two languages at the same time – is critical to that child’s success,” Hidalgo said.
Tucson investors support education startups
Vozariz recently won $2,500 from the University of Arizona Center for Innovation.
Director Casey Carrillo said there’s been an uptick in education startups.
“It excites funders because everyone definitely wants to have an impact on education. K-12 is definitely the pipeline to eventually come to the University of Arizona,” Carrillo said.
Hidalgo said he hopes to roll out Vozariz in the next six weeks. The paper version is already available, and you can try the prototype for yourself by going to flipdemo.vozariz.com.
Isabela Lisco is a Report for America corps member covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
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