Bring The Power of Voice into the NICU
smallTalk in the NICU
Developed by a neonatologist with support from the National Institutes of Health, The smallTalk® NICU Egg™ speaker helps families stay connected with their baby during NICU stays.
Families can record messages using our free app, either at home or while in the NICU. The Egg is played once or twice per shift during the baby’s wakeful periods. The volume and duration are automatically adjusted based on the infant's age and location, ensuring safe and appropriate use.
A NICU stay can impact brain development
A stay in the NICU can be a major contributor to delays or impairment in the hearing and speech development of infants, due to reduced exposure to caregiver’s voice. Caregiver voice exposure is one of the basic neural building blocks critical for communication and overall brain development.
The power of caregiver voice exposure
For babies in the NICU, hearing their caregiver's voice helps in increasing cardiorespiratory stability and growth, improves deep sleep, and is even associated with shorter stays. And, it’s good for their brain. NICU babies who hear more infant-directed speech may have improved neurobehavioral and language scores at 18 months.
Easy to implement and nurse-directed
The smallTalk NICU Egg system enables NICU staff to bring each baby the neurologically rich voice of their loved ones right into the crib or incubator. Our patented algorithms and hardware make sure that each baby hears the recorded voice at a volume and duration that meets their specific needs.*
smallTalk provides the care team with evidence-based protocols for the use of the NICU Egg system in the NICU. As part of the smallTalk system, NICUs will receive a dedicated tablet featuring an app where Mom and family are guided through the recording of simple lullabies and stories. The content is then wirelessly stored on smallTalk’s egg-shaped speaker, ready for delivery to the infant.
With a tap of a single button on top of the Egg speaker, nurses can activate the stored recording which will play at a volume safe for NICU infants and shut off automatically after 20 minutes.
Throughout the infant’s stay in the NICU, healthcare professionals and family can review the frequency of use, share notes, and arrange for new recordings through the mobile app.
*Patents pending in the USA and abroad.