Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Swain.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The beginning for us was 20 years ago this year, in an elementary classroom during a parent-teacher conference.
We met with our son Austin’s first-grade teacher and learned that her students were holding a “phone” to help them sound out words during a vocabulary test. The teacher also told us she would have the kids use this “phone” during “read-aloud” time. The teacher went on to share with us how this tool helped her students learn to read and spell. We were curious, and that’s where it all started.
When we got home, I asked our son what he thought of his “reading phone” he said, “I like it, but I have to hold it.” This inspired the first trip to Home Depot to build the initial design of the world’s first hands-free WhisperPhone SOLO. We had no idea what excitement and challenges were ahead of us.
After nearly two years of design work, we were ready to share our idea – and what better place to launch a new educational tool developed in Minnesota than at the Education Minnesota State Conference. Conversations were engaging and inspiring as we quickly discovered that many teachers knew far more about how our little product could help their elementary students learn to read and spell.
During this same conference, a Speech-Language Pathologist came to our booth and told us we had a great idea and that we were missing an important part of the learning population, special needs.
We had never heard of a Speech-Language Pathologist before, but she was patient and generous with her time, knowledge, and expertise and she talked about many areas where our product could benefit the students she was helping. Areas like Dyslexia, Apraxia, Aphasia, Auditory Processing Disorder, Selective Mutism, Prosodic Defects, ADHD, Autism, and Auditory Discrimination. We felt overwhelmed by all of these applications but we were excited that our product could help in multiple ways.
We had more work to do as we began to learn more about all of the ways WhisperPhone can help.
Since that day, we have attended education conferences around the country to find out how we can help and the result is our current product family of WhisperPhones; SOLO, ELEMENT, DUET, and SELECT. Each of these models, for individual and team use, was inspired by, and created over time from, conversations with thousands of teachers nationwide. To date, we have sold various WhisperPhone models in just over 30 countries.
Our goal continues to be to leave the world better than we found it by creating products that accelerate literacy and language learning when paired with strong student/educator connections.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Our path has not been smooth, but it has been rewarding. We were fully employed with “day jobs” and raising a family, so much of our development efforts were outside of work hours and family time.
The toughest challenge we faced, however, was COVID. Schools shut down and so did our business. It was a tough stretch for all of us. And, while we were able to navigate through that time, our concern continued to rest with the kids. Spend a few minutes online and you will easily find study after study and article after article that tells a story of lost learning time during the school shutdown, and kids who are behind in their reading and spelling skills.
We will never get that time back, but we hope that with awesome teachers and parents and a little help from learning tools like WhisperPhone, closing the reading gap will be a reality.
We’ve been impressed with Harebrain Incorporated, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Mission: to help learners become their very best. Vision: create tools that enhance literacy and language skills to accelerate learning and personal growth.
Our customers are mostly kids in general education; kindergarten through 4th grade learning to read, spell, and write. WhisperPhone is also helpful for kids who could benefit from an alternative method of teaching/learning.
Also, we have two WhisperPhone models for older children and even adults! WhisperPhone SOLO XL and WhisperPhone ELEMENT XL are designed to be used by middle schoolers, high schoolers, and adults. We typically see these two models used to help learn a language that is new to the student or help talk through story problems in math class.
Our products are available for purchase online at whisperphone.com and many companies that sell school supplies to schools.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Those closest to us know this, but I want to say to your readers that we have a simple goal, to be a force for good in the world.
Pricing:
- WhisperPhone ELEMENT $8.99
- WhisperPhone SOLO $10.99
- WhisperPhone Duet $22.99
- WhisperPhone SELECT $89.99
- Multiple-product discounts available
Contact Info:
- Website: www.whisperphone.com
- Instagram: @whisper.phone
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whisperphone.learning
- Youtube: WhisperPhone @ WhisperPhone
