On the first anniversary of GingoTalk, Petra and Meta share a personal reflection on how they found themselves where they are today. With heart and soul, they are dedicated to creating and sharing knowledge in the field of speech therapy. Their journey reflects a message they often share with parents of children with speech and language difficulties: progress takes time, but every step matters.
Why did you create this innovative product?
The co-founders of GingoTalk are speech therapists working daily with children in speech therapy clinics. Research shows that up to 30% of preschool children experience difficulties in at least one area of speech and language development, and this percentage is still increasing. We encounter these challenges every day in our clinical practice, and we felt a strong responsibility to contribute—at least in part—to addressing this issue and helping to slow this growing trend.
Based on the needs of daily practice, we first developed the Slovenian speech therapy cards “VEM–POVEM”, together with a professional instruction manual. Each set includes 300 cards, systematically organised according to the sounds of the Slovenian language. The cards are designed to strengthen communication through play, support sentence structure, and promote phonological awareness. They also address developmental disabilities and can serve as a foundation for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
To support this professional tool, we created an attractive and playful green mascot called Gingo. Practice has shown that children are more motivated and cooperative during play, so we designed a very special puppet with a long tongue and a movable mouth. This allows children to imitate movements that are essential for developing oral-motor skills.
We tested our idea and the puppet with a sample of children, and the responses were truly fantastic. We later added exercise cards with written and visual instructions to strengthen speech motor skills, available in three languages: Slovenian, English, and German. These cards provide parents and professionals with clear guidance and help them lead the exercises effectively. The puppet actively guides and motivates the child to repeat movements and breathing patterns that are important for producing specific speech sounds.
How does your innovation work in practice?
At the back of the Gingo puppet, there is an opening where we insert our hand to move its mouth. At the same time, we can place a finger into the tongue, making it fully movable.
Initially, the puppet can be used to establish contact with the child. For example, a child with autism spectrum disorder may find it difficult to focus on faces, eyes, or mouths. Through Gingo, the child can explore the mouth, examine the teeth, and interact with a responsive character. Gingo reacts—he may giggle, laugh loudly, or open his mouth wide and say “aaa.” If the child shows interest in continuing, we can set simple goals, such as interaction or encouraging vocalisation.
Gingo can also be presented as being very hungry. Since he is green, he wants to eat green food. We encourage the child to search for green objects, name them, and place them into Gingo’s mouth. Of course, Gingo chews a lot, gets his teeth dirty, and then needs to clean them—but he has forgotten his toothbrush! Instead, he “cleans” his teeth with his tongue, performing oral-motor exercises in a playful way.
The puppet is an excellent tool for reducing anxiety and emotional tension, especially in children who feel withdrawn during individual or group therapy. Gingo is a humorous character who often falls, makes mistakes, gets tired, or feels extremely happy—helping children overcome fear, improve mood, and feel safe.
Gingo also loves to exercise—not with his arms or legs, but with his tongue. He demonstrates exercises like lifting the tongue toward the nose, sometimes failing several times before succeeding. This encourages children to try as well: Who has the bigger tongue? Who can lift it higher? Gingo can also show exercises he cannot do, always in a funny and encouraging way. When a child succeeds, Gingo often succeeds too.
Children easily identify with Gingo because they, too, may struggle with certain exercises—especially children with more severe speech difficulties. In the next step, we introduce the idea that the child and Gingo will practise together. The accompanying exercise cards serve as a guide for both adults (parents and professionals) and children.
How has GingoTalk been spreading?
We initially presented the Gingo puppet to parents, educators, teachers, special educators, and speech therapists in Slovenia. In recent months, we have noticed growing interest in Gingo from other countries as well—especially Croatia, Germany, Spain, and Norway. We truly believe that children across Europe can benefit from our innovation, and our goal is to expand it worldwide.
If I want to try it, what should I do?
Get in touch with us! Visit our website www.gingotalk.com or follow us on Facebook and Instagram (GingoTalk).
We are open to collaboration with educational and healthcare institutions, individual therapists, teachers, and other professionals. If you have an idea for cooperation, we welcome your questions and suggestions.
Don’t hesitate to contact us!
