LiveWyre Labs
Technology designed to make communication, time and everyday life easier to understand.
Responsive AI designed to strengthen comprehension, communication and independent thinking.
Many autistic children understand more than they can easily communicate.
They may give a vague or incomplete response, repeat familiar language, say “I don’t know,” or provide no response at all. This does not necessarily mean they have not understood. They may need more time, a different question or targeted support to organize what they are thinking and translate it into language.
LiveWyre Labs is developing an AI-supported learning tool that engages in a responsive, back-and-forth interaction with each child. It listens to their responses, identifies what support may be needed and adapts its questions to their individual communication and processing needs.
Families and professionals:
Join the pilot list
Funders and organizations:
Discuss a partnership
Moving beyond right and wrong answers
Most learning technology follows a fixed pathway: it asks a question, marks the answer as correct or incorrect and moves on.
Communication is more complex than that.
A child may understand part of the information but struggle to organize the details. They may have formed an incomplete mental image, misunderstood one concept or need additional processing time. They may also understand the answer without having the language or motor-planning ability to express it clearly.
Our Communication AI is being designed to respond to these differences.
Rather than immediately supplying the answer or repeatedly asking the same question, it will use the child’s response to determine what to ask next.
How it works
1. The child listens or reads
The child is presented with carefully selected spoken or written information at an appropriate level.
2. The child creates a mental image
The tool encourages the child to picture the information, helping them develop a more complete and connected understanding of what they have heard or read.
3. The child communicates what they understand
The child responds in their own words. The focus is not on producing one predetermined sentence, but on communicating the meaning they have created.
4. The AI responds and adapts
The AI considers the child’s response and provides the most appropriate next question or prompt.
It may:
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Allow additional processing time
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Ask the child to explain more
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Clarify an unclear response
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Ask about an important missing detail
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Break a broad question into smaller questions
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Explore what the child pictured
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Help the child sequence their ideas
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Return to information that may have been misunderstood
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Adjust the level of support based on the child’s response
5. The child builds a fuller response
Through responsive back-and-forth interaction, the child is supported in developing a clearer mental representation and communicating their understanding more completely.
The aim is to provide enough support for progress without taking over the child’s thinking or speaking for them.
What the AI supports
The Communication AI is being developed to strengthen the cognitive foundations involved in understanding and expressing language, including:
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Creating mental images from spoken and written information
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Processing and connecting details
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Developing vocabulary and concept knowledge
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Identifying the main idea
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Sequencing information
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Retelling stories and experiences
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Organizing thoughts before speaking
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Answering comprehension questions
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Explaining ideas, opinions and experiences
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Making inferences
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Developing more independent and flexible communication
What makes it different?
Responsive back-and-forth communication
The AI does not follow one fixed script for every learner. It responds to what the child communicates and adapts its next question, prompt or level of support.
Focused on underlying cognition
The goal is not simply to produce a correct answer. The tool is designed to strengthen the underlying processes involved in comprehension, organization and communication.
Informed by current neuroscience research
The tool is informed by current neuroscience research into how the autistic brain may process, organize and respond to information differently.
This research is considered alongside direct professional experience and the individual child’s responses. Autism is highly individual, so the technology does not assume that every autistic learner thinks, communicates or learns in the same way.
Built from direct experience
The approach is grounded in more than 15 years of direct experience supporting autistic learners with a wide range of communication, comprehension and learning profiles.
Individualized to the learner
The tool is designed to respond to each learner’s communication and processing needs rather than expecting every child to progress through the same sequence in the same way.
Neurodiversity-affirming
The purpose is not to teach autistic children to hide their natural communication style or appear less autistic. It is to provide greater access to understanding, expression, participation and self-determined independence.
Responding to different types of communication
A child’s response provides important information about what they may need next.
When a child gives a clear response
The AI can acknowledge the response, encourage the child to add relevant detail and move forward when they have demonstrated sufficient understanding.
When a child gives a vague response
The AI can invite them to explain more and use targeted questions to help them access and organize additional details.
When a child gives an unclear response
The AI can clarify what the child means without automatically treating the response as incorrect.
When a child says “I don’t know”
The AI can provide processing time, reduce the complexity of the question or ask about one smaller part of the information.
When a child does not respond
The AI can pause, repeat or simplify the question and offer structured support without immediately supplying the answer.
When a child gives an inaccurate response
The AI can identify where understanding may have broken down and guide the child back to the relevant information.
Designed around the Cognition–Communication Connection
The Communication AI is built around LiveWyre Learning’s Cognition–Communication Connection: the understanding that communication depends on more than knowing words.
To communicate effectively, a child may need to:
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Process the information they receive
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Create a clear and connected mental representation
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Identify what is important
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Organize their thoughts
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Retrieve the necessary language
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Plan and produce a response
A difficulty at any point in this process can affect the child’s final answer.
By responding to the process behind communication—not only the words produced—the tool aims to provide more precise and meaningful support.
Who is it for?
The Communication AI is being developed for children and young people who experience difficulties with:
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Understanding spoken or written information
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Forming mental images
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Answering open-ended questions
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Giving detailed responses
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Sequencing and retelling
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Explaining what happened during their day
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Organizing their thoughts
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Moving beyond repeated or scripted language
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Expressing what they know
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Communicating independently
This may include autistic learners and individuals with language-processing differences, childhood apraxia of speech, dyspraxia, ADHD, dyslexia or related communication and learning profiles.
The suitability of the tool will depend on each learner’s individual needs. It is intended to complement—not replace—the support and judgment of parents, educators and qualified professionals.
For parents, educators and professionals
The tool is being designed for supported use across home, educational and professional settings.
Future development may allow the adults supporting a child to:
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Select an appropriate learning level
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Review patterns in the child’s responses
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Identify areas of strength and difficulty
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See which types of prompts were most effective
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Monitor changes over time
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Connect learning activities to individualized goals
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Support the transfer of skills beyond the app
The purpose of this information is to improve understanding and instruction—not to diagnose a child or reduce their communication to a score.
Currently in development
The Communication AI is currently in the prototype and development stage.
We are working to ensure that the tool is:
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Safe and appropriate for children
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Responsive without becoming overwhelming
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Accessible across different communication profiles
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Protective of children’s privacy
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Transparent about the role and limitations of AI
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Guided by families, autistic individuals and relevant professionals
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Designed to support human relationships rather than replace them
Help shape the future of communication technology
We are inviting parents, autistic individuals, educators, therapists, researchers and specialist organizations to follow the development of the Communication AI.
Join our interest list to receive updates, view future demonstrations and hear about opportunities to participate in research, testing and pilot programs.
LiveWyre Labs is also interested in connecting with funders, researchers, technology specialists and organizations working in autism, communication, education, accessibility and artificial intelligence.