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INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

TO: JANNA THOMAS, DONALD RHINE
FROM: VEN SATYAM, DAVID COUTO, MAX SOCCOCCIO
SUBJECT: TEAM SAE CLIENT INTERVIEW – MRS. ??? (FOR PRIVACY REASONS)
DATE: 2/26/2009

In order to determine the best approach to assist our client, referred to as John from hereon in, David and Ven discussed the matter with John's mother. John is currently four and a half years old (he will be reaching five years of age in July) and currently participates in CHIPS, Chelmsford's integrated preschool program. His parents have noticed his delayed speech development early on in his childhood, but slowly John has become more adept at sounding out a variety of syllables.

John has been meeting periodically with a speech therapist to accelerate his learning of certain syllables, which John's mother says has been working very well. She comments that after trying numerous options, one on one couseling seems to work the best.

John also previously had hearing problems; thus, he used to have a hard time comrephending others. However, ear tubes were recently surgically implanted in his ears to absolve the predicament. The tubes have proved to be successful, as John's mother reports that John has been more responsive and has had an easier time pronouncing new syllables after recieving the tubes. A puzzling aspect, though, is that John remains to have trouble with numerous syllables he learned prior to the surgery.

According to his mother, John has a normal vocabulary compared to that of other four year olds; the only problem is that not all of the words he has learned are clearly articulated. The greatest problem, John's mother says, caused by John's impediment is communication while John's mother is in the car and driving. She is unable to turn around to look at John and fully concentrate on understanding him. She requests that the device produced for her child will be something that John will not be dependent on and will be able to eventually outgrow. She also would prefer the device to have some sort of volume control.

Towards the end of the interview, John arrived home from CHIPS, and David and Ven got the opportunity of personally talking with John. John enjoys doing simple 25-piece puzzles for fun, his favorite television cartoons are Curious George and Mickey Mouse, and his favorite colors are blue and yellow.