Tahliyah Griffin

Tahliyah is a 15-year-old storyteller with a vivid imagination and a powerful voice, one that she shares through a combination of high-tech assistive technology and low-tech, paper-based AAC systems.

Though non-verbal, Tahliyah communicates in a way that is uniquely her own. Over the past four years, she has worked closely with her speech therapist to build and refine her communication skills, using a blend of tools that support her expression across different settings.

This book is the result of her creativity, determination, and the collaborative partnership she has built with her communication team. Tahliyah’s writing proves that communication is more than verbal speech, it comes in many forms and it is important to accept all communication.

Kayleigh Bedford – Speech therapist (AAC partner)

Kayleigh is a speech pathologist with over a decade of experience, with a special interest in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Her work centres on supporting individuals with complex communication needs to express themselves fully and confidently. For the past four years, she has worked alongside Tahliyah, helping to shape and support her unique communication journey through AAC.

Her practice is grounded in the belief that everyone has the right to be heard, and she is passionate about creating inclusive, person-centred approaches to communication.

Joanne Bedford – Co-writer

Joanne has over 20 years of experience supporting children with communication challenges. Known for her gentle nature and deep compassion, she is dedicated to helping every child find their voice.

She helped bring this story to life by using Tahliyah’s words and ideas to form sentences, ensuring the story remained true to Tahliyah’s unique voice and way of expressing herself through AAC.

Tiarna Westdijk - Illustrator

Tiarna is an emerging young artist with the creative heart behind the magical illustrations of the monster and the vet!

Tiarna stepped into the unknown world of illustrating, with the monster and the vet being her first published artwork for a book, where she would find pockets of time in her busy life, often painting late at night or after long days of working, to bring the imaginative world of the six legged fluffy yellow monster, with a funny adventure of seeing the vet to life, but being creative an crafting is what she loves most. She believes that every picture can tell a story, and this is her debut as an illustrator, with her ambitions being that her illustrations spark imagination, bringing joy to young readers and their families, and that her true passion for art and creativity will put smiles on everyones faces and inspire them to do what they love.

How the Project Came to Life

Tahliyah collaborated with Kayleigh using both her high-tech AAC device (Grid 3) and her low-tech paper-based PODD system to develop the story. Together, they decided on the characters, what they looked like, what they wore, and what they did. The process took time, as Tahliyah requires additional time to process and communicate her ideas, but every moment was meaningful.

Kayleigh made the sessions engaging and fun, gently guiding the process with a hidden purpose: helping Tahliyah build and use her communication skills while shaping the story she wanted to tell.

Kayleigh’s mum, Joanne, then helped turn Tahliyah’s ideas into full sentences, bringing her words together to create the final written story.

The family was so proud of the result that they decided to publish the book, Celebrating Tahliyah’s imagination and showing the world that being non-verbal doesn’t mean having nothing to say.

BOOKS AUTHORED BY TALIYAH

COMING SOON