Kayla Cornale – The 18-year old Canadian high school student won a CNN Heroes award yesterday for her science fair project “Sounds Into Syllables” which became a huge breakthrough in autism education.
Kayla Cornale wanted to be closer to Lorena, her autistic younger cousin, who because of her disorder was unable to communicate at the same level as the rest of her close-knit family.
Kayla, 18, observed her cousin’s keen ability to memorize songs and devised a way to teach her how to talk, read and express emotions through melodies played on a piano.
Kayla assigned a letter of the alphabet to the center-most keys of the piano, and by linking language to sounds created a breakthrough in autism research. Kayla’s patented system, “Sounds into Syllables,” won top awards at several international science fairs.
Her science fair project captured the attention of autism researchers and an interactive computer learning game based on her autism breakthrough “Sounds into Syllables” is currently being tested in several Ontario, Canada school districts.
Kayla Cornale receiving her CNN Heroes award:
By linking chords with emotions, Kayla has opened the door to communication for thousands of autistic children like her cousin Lorena.
Here is a link to last night’s CNN video interviews with the three winners of the young CNN Heroes awards.
And that’t the latest news on one of the young CNN Heroes, Kayla Cornale.
Tags: cnn, cnn heroes, hero, heroes, kayla cornale
