Like any seven-year-old, Karly, the girl known for her bright smile, may have a temper tantrum when she receives a hamburger for lunch rather than the coveted chicken nuggets. But her frustration runs much deeper than the surface disappointment a typical grade-schooler feels when they don't get what they want. That's because Karly's frustration stems from the fact that she can't tell anybody what it was that she wanted in the first place.

Karly was born with low muscle tone and a condition that remains undiagnosed by doctors who simply say she has a 'global developmental delay'.

Karly is non-verbal, speaking only a few small words that are not always consistent in meaning. Sign language has not helped. Pictures do help her communicate, but the right ones are not always handy.  For her parents, Kristin and Jon Erickson of Scituate, trying to manage Karly's schedule and keep her teachers and other caretakers up to date on the important details of her day, has become a full-time job.

"Karly can't speak for herself, so I have to communicate with the school everyday to let them know how she ate, if she slept well, and what her mood is like," Kristin says.

And this transfer of information to Karly's teachers at South Shore Educational Collaborative in South Hingham happens amid the commotion of other students settling in at school-- a distraction that can muddle a message.  Similarly, meetings with doctors or teachers to gauge Karly's developmental progress are based on paperwork stored in manila folders, which could potentially get lost in the shuffle.

The Ericksons recognized that this paper-based and verbal exchange of information is not an efficient way to collaborate. So last year they went looking for a solution. When they couldn't find one, they decided to create it themselves.

The result of their effort is a new Internet site called, Parlerai, a highly secure, web-based social networking tool for the family, friends, and caregivers who surround a child with special needs.  The Ericksons designed and built the website, Parlerai.com, partly out of sheer need for themselves, and partly due to the desire to provide a better quality of life for families living in a similar situation-be it with an autistic child, or even an elderly parent.

"It's a way to make each person more productive as well as reduce stress," Jon says, explaining some of the portal services that include a calendar/scheduling function, reports of network interaction and contributed information, and alerts for sending urgent messages.

For the child, it offers a better way to communicate their needs, as Parlerai.com provides a section designed specifically for them. The ChoiceMaker & StoryTeller tool, for example, leverages a private library (called MyLibrary) of pictures, symbols, and other media that the child can point to in order to let someone know what they want or need. MyMessenger, another feature, offers a way for a child to send a message to Mom, Dad, or Grandma. For example, Karly can use this feature of Parlerai to send a text message-using pictures and symbols-- to her big brother Grant, a 6^th grader at Jenkins school in Scituate, to let him know she's thinking about him.

Collectively, these functions available to Karly on a touch screen computer enable her to get her message across.  "It doesn't solve Karly's communication issues completely, but it does improve her general quality of life because she gets what she was hoping for," Kristin says.

Shall Speak

Parlerai is a French word that means 'shall speak'. When Karly was very little, she clearly responded to the French language, her parents said. This was the inspiration behind the website name.

The Erickson's were living in England in 2001. Jon was working as the chief technology officer for a European company, and Kristin was pregnant with Karly, their second child. Despite having a normal full-term pregnancy and no indication that anything was wrong while the baby was in the womb, Karly was unresponsive at birth and spent the next few months undergoing tests at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

A year later, the Erickson family moved back to the United States and settled in Scituate, where they were living prior to the job relocation across the pond. While it was good for the family to be home, it wasn't easy transferring Karly's medical documents from London to Boston hospitals, as doctors here required their own set of tests. It was a difficult process for everyone to have to undergo again. Yet for Jon, who has a technology background and understands the capability of electronic collaboration tools, it was an eye-opener.

"In business they have tools for data collection, yet parents have nothing," says Jon, who left a career at Fidelity Investments in May in order to help Kristin get Parlerai.com off the ground.

The website, which is now online, is still in beta form. It will officially launch by the end of the year, providing customized and private social networking services. Currently, there are about 30 families testing the site and they are recognizing the real value in Parlerai, which is the Internet-enabled technology it is built on.

Unlike the existing PC-based solutions for special needs individuals-- which amount to an expensive computer that runs specialized software-- the Erickson's site is accessible via any computer with a Web browser, including mobile devices like the iPhone or Blackberry.

Because the site is meant to be a tool for Moms and Dads, it is set up in an affordable subscription-based model, priced at $29.95 per month, which equates to about a $1 a day.

And the return on that investment? Empowerment.

Now, when the Erickson's take their weekend ski trips, they can quickly pull into the McDonald's drive-thru for a lunch on-the-go, and show Karly pictures on the phone of her food choices.  No more frustration.

 "Life changed on January 6^th, 2001 [when Karly was born]," Kristin acknowledges. "But it didn't really stop us. Jon and I don't dwell on the negative. We take what happened and say, 'how are we going to work with this?'".

They have not only found a workaround for their own lives, but are on the path to bringing that same cherished quality of life to other families.

For more information, visit www.parlerai.com.

By Stephanie Neil

Stephanie Neil is a journalist. Her business, technology, and human interest stories have appeared in a variety of print and online newspapers and magazines including eWeek, Managing Automation, The Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Huggies Baby Network, South Shore Woman, and The Boston Globe.  She lives on the South Shore with her two kids, two cats, and a dog. Contact info: stephanieneil@comcast.net  or 781-378-1652. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieNeil