Apps for individuals with communication impairments

This week’s topic was communication impairments. I am going to start my review of apps with this disclaimer. I am NOT a speech pathologist so what I think is good and works for me as a teacher might not necessarily be the best Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app there is. There are a ton of apps that focus on improving communication. These apps range from free to over $150, from simple to complex. It is interesting to note that this market for mobile technology devices as AAC devices was not the original intention. However, apps have quickly popped up as educators, parents, and speech pathologists have seen the possible use of these devices to help serve those with communication impairments. With so many options it is hard to even figure out where to start. I am going to skip over the basic apps such as “Answers: Yes No” because there are other apps that have much more to offer. I want to focus on the apps that are set up and work like traditional AAC devices. These apps focus on providing the AAC experience without the stigma of carrying around a clunky AAC device. Again there are numerous apps out there and if this is what you are looking for honestly evaluating all of them is a daunting task. I wrote last week about proloquo2go, one of the first AAC apps. I took a look at a few 2 free versions on my iPod touch, which I will go over here.

First is Sono Flex Lite from Tobii. I picked this app to try because I know that Tobii is an AAC company that produces software and hardware AAC solutions and has branched out into the mobile devices. The Sono Flex app will place symbols in a message window and when the user is ready they can press the message window to produce a complete sentence. The sentence does disappear after it is spoken but is retained in the history for a short period in case the user needs to repeat what he or she just said. The symbols and categories are color coded to make things easier for the user. This is similar to a traditional Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) but unlike traditional PECS this does not use actual pictures which can get lost or destroyed allowing communication to always be at the users fingertips. The full version is $99

Next is MyTalkTools. I picked this one because I know the speech therapists at my agency are looking into getting this for our iPads. This is an app that allows a fair amount of authoring in the paid version. This app also allows a user to work online to create to look of their communication boards. This interface is very user friendly. The keyword is ONLINE, that means I can modify boards from home or at work on any computer! The symbols are on the left window. Users can import their own pictures or use a variety of preinstalled ones. This app also uses Symbolstix, a common set a picture symbols which helps provide continuity between different settings. The middle window provides the layout of the board as it will be seen on the device. Finally, the right window offers the user a tiered look at their boards to see where each page will take the user. The one drawback that I see is that it does seem tricky for speech pathologists or teachers who have multiple students to go back and forth between different users to program for multiple devices under 1 user. Might not be a “make or break” issue but definitely worth considering. The full version of this app has a $49.99 price tag definitely making it one of the more affordable AAC apps out there.

Conspicuously missing from the list is an AAC app from DynaVox. DynaVox is one of the leaders in AAC devices but has mostly stayed away from the mobile technology market. They do have a few apps for flashcards and memory but nothing that serves purposeful communication. For those of you who have never used a DynaVox, they are amazing. They are user friendly with several templates for different levels of users. I have been able to take DynaVox Series 5 software and make a point of sale system that calculates the total of an order and will even do change with 2 decimal places. The software also allows an author to switch between multiple users. These are all things that DynaVox could take advantage of but they are still marketing their own AAC devices and making them more “mobile-like” by offering cameras and internet connectivity. Furthermore the iPad really cannot compete in durability to the DyanVox.

In the end after reading all of this it is best to do whatever is going to work BEST for the person using the device. There is no magic answer that will meet everyone’s needs. Pick an app that allows some authoring and customization and is not going to break the bank. Good luck finding an app and happy hunting.