New Video game that helps children who stutter mentioned in EU and Belgian press

White offers communication support to Belgian startup Say It Labs

On 22 October 2021, the Belgian startup Say It Labs announced the launch of its new video game Fluency Friends that helps children who stutter practice through speech recognition. This date also happens to be ‘International Stuttering Awareness Day’. With the help of White, Say It Labs’ announcement was mentioned in a number of leading Belgian news outlets, such as Metro, Knack, La Libre Belgique and La Derniere Heure, as well as the expat publications Brussels Times and EU Political Report. More specifically, White drafted the press release, devised and executed a dissemination plan and connected with reporters.

Fluency Friends is the brainchild of Erich Reiter and Lukas Latacz, the founders of Say It Labs. The company combines state-of-the-art speech recognition technology with best practices in speech therapy to develop digital games that allow people with speech disabilities to improve by  practicing independently. The game, that has the full support of speech and language pathology experts, is initially only available in North America, but will soon also be released in other regions. A trial version of Fluency Friends can be downloaded for free until 1 December 2021.

First in its kind

According to Say It Labs, Fluency Friends is the first of its kind. It focuses on children who stutter, but the company also plans to apply its technology to speech disabilities related  to articulation disorders, autism and Parkinson’s disease.  Erich Reiter (Buffalo, NY) and Lukas Latacz Ph.D. (Brussels, Belgium) founded SAY IT Labs BV in 2019. The company is a Belgium based spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (imec).

“White did an excellent job! They clearly know how journalists think and how to reach them. They also quickly understood how to best present our message to a broad audience. We are looking forward to working with White again in the future”. – Erich Reiter, CEO and Founder Say It Labs.