MOST parents can remember their child’s first word vividly.

A milestone, it’s usually a variation of the word “Daddy” and is followed by other words, then phrases, then conversations.

However some children cannot speak and face the frustration of knowing what they want to say, but being unable to make themselves understood.

Six-year-old Tamsin England, from Faringdon, is one of those. She who was born with cerebral palsy, which limits her speech and movement in her limbs, so even pointing to something is difficult.

Tamsin’s mother Karen, 39, said: “We knew Tamsin wouldn’t reach some of the milestones other babies did, such as sitting up and saying first words when she should.

“But she did recognise people and things and if you said: “Where’s daddy?”, she would look straight at him, so we knew her communication problems were just physical.”

When she was two, Tamsin wore two wristbands – one with a symbol for ‘Yes’ on it, the other with a symbol for ‘No’ – and began to respond to simple questions by looking at the appropriate band.

Her parents then made a picture book of different objects and Tamsin would “eye point” at them to tell them what she wanted or wanted to do.

Mrs England said: “It worked, but we quickly realised that was as far as we were going to be able to take things alone. Then Ace advertised for families with non-speaking children to take part in an eye-pointing project.”

The Ace Centre – Ace stands for Aiding Communication in Education – began life in 1984, in a back room at Ormerod School in Headington.

Within a year it had enough staff to help young people with severe communication problems.

As the technology improved, the number of ways to help these young people increased.

Computers operated by touch or body movements and even machines that talk became fact, not science fiction, and staff were soon training other professionals in how to support the children.

The Englands worked with Ace to develop a more effective eye-pointing book.

Using colour-coded symbols to represent words and actions, the book also uses sentence-building ‘action’ words, so Tamsin can link words together.

From previously just eye pointing at a doll, she was soon able to say, “Mummy put doll to bed” and: “Go to Playthings page”.

Her mother showed others how how easy it was to read Tamsin’s eye-pointing and her father Gary, 38, and family and friends were able to understand to what Tamsin had to say as they played with her.

Her next breakthrough, with the help of Ace, was a computer with a voice which works like the book, but which also ‘says’ the word for her.

Mrs England said: “The first version of the computer had a head switch, but that was frustrating for Tamsin, as she has difficulty moving her head very fast.

But then came the ‘knee eureka moment’.

Mrs England said: “Tamsin and I were playing with a toy that had a switch and I accidentally let go of it.

“It fell between Tamsin’s knees and she started to squeeze it to press the switch. We just hadn’t thought using her legs to operate a computer but it works. Now she has a voice computer she controls by squeezing her knees.”

When the Princess Royal visited the Ace Centre last December, Tamsin was there to greet her with a posy and a message she had prepared with her computer. She told the Princess she liked reading and asked if she liked books too. Thanks to the technology – and her own and her parents’ determination – Tamsin attends a mainstream school – Stockham, in Wantage – where teaching assistants adapt lessons for her computer.

Mrs England said: “At the end of the summer Ace is loaning us an eyegaze computer, which we’re very excited about.”

Tamsin will be able to use the system, which costs £5,000 per machine, to ‘speak’ or type, by looking at grids of words and letters on the screen.

Mrs England added: “Before we found Ace, the future looked very frustrating for Tamsin. She knew what she wanted to say, but we just didn’t know how to help her make herself heard.

“Now there’s no reason why, like other children who have been helped by Ace, she won’t go on to university and have a regular job too.”