autism, AAC, and nonverbalness

I’ve been thinking about trying an AAC app but don’t know if using one would be insensitive. I’ve not used one before and some days can communicate well. I don’t want to be inappropriate or offend anyone.

I’ve been reading your posts (and others) and wanted to know if AAC apps are something I shouldn’t be using.

speak for yourself was created by two SLPs,  which is really reflected in some of the features found in this AAC program.

speak for yourself has only one grid size, 8x15,  but with a unique feature - the user can begin with as few as two words accessible, and those two words will stay in the same place as their vocabulary expands.

in fact , all of the words in speak for yourself will always stay in the same place, no matter whether you're working with 2 words or the full 14,000 available in the app!

(an image of the speak for yourself home page with all words open)

speak for yourself bases its language system around the concept of motor planning,  meaning that once a user learns where to find a word , they never have to learn that word again - it’ll always be in the exact same place, allowing language acquisition to be supported by the motor plans in the user’s mind. not only that, but all 14,000 words are available within just two taps. this hugely improves speech rate and also makes the app very easy to navigate, in my opinion it’s an absolutely brilliant feature and isnt found within any other software.

words are organised by association, rather than parts of speech - so “book” is found under “read”, rather than under “nouns”. i personally think this makes the app more accessible for young users or people who struggle to understand parts of speech, words are more intuitive to find than in other AAC apps.

this isn’t to say SFY doesn’t focus on grammar at all - the opposite is actually true. verb inflections are always organised in a certain order (eg. the “-ing” form is always two buttons to the right of the root word.) this is really helpful for people learning language through motor planning, and has helped me develop my own grammar skills over time. an inflections folder is also included, so almost any word can be altered to its plural form, past tense, etc.

specific words can be made visible or invisible to the user through the “open/close” feature, to allow progressive language development and to stop the user becoming overwhelmed by too many words. all words can be made accessible through the “babble” feature - great for exploring new words and building motor plans! the search feature is also very robust, it highlights the path to the word and automatically opens the word to make it visible in the future.

once typed into the speech bar, sentences can be stored by touching the “hold that thought” button, which saves sentences to be spoken later. this is an invaluable feature for AAC users, as we so often get interrupted with another question and don’t get to speak what we were preparing!

the typing feature in SFY is very well-integrated. it uses your device’s keyboard, and has the option to read out each letter. it loads quickly, so switching from symbols to typing doesn’t interrupt your sentence flow. however, it doesn’t include the symbols for each typed word like i’ve seen in other AAC apps, and it doesn’t have in-app word prediction.

sadly, SFY is only available in english right now, and it’s unclear whether other languages will be added in the future ; as a bilingual user this is something i’d really love, so i hope other languages are one day supported in SFY!

speak for yourself uses Cereproc voices, with customisable pitch, and Acapela voices are available as an in-app purchase. the supported Cereproc accents are australian english, indian english, south african english, irish english, UK english and US english. however, the former three all sound quite automated and child voices are only available in US english (and british english if you purchase an acapela voice). i’d also like to mention that while i really like a lot of the Cereproc voices, they can sometimes begin to glitch towards the end of very long sentences. not really a big deal, but again, still worth mentioning.

pros and cons!

pros:

words available within two taps

14000 words

organised intuitively

words are easy to add

can be made accessible for visually impaired users

hold that thought feature

robust search feature

variety of voices

good grammar support

free trial version

cons:

only english available

slightly unusual symbols (eg. photo of a witch for “which”)

quite expensive, although often half price on disability awareness days and autism awareness month

only available on iOS

in all honesty, SFY is the most robust AAC system i’ve ever found, and at least on an individual level i can vouch that it has really improved my life. if you’re looking for an AAC system for somebody, no matter how young, i really urge you to consider this as an option, there isn’t really another program like it.

hi! today i'll be reviewing proloquo2go, an AAC app available on the App Store for £249.99 (although it is often half price at the beginning of april and during october.) proloquo2go is a robust AAC app made by AssistiveWare, whom i have no affilation with at all, but i personally think are a really awesome company. they make several other assistive technology apps, including Proloquo4Text, a text to speech based AAC app with a variety of Acapela voices, Pictello, a picture based storytelling app, and accessible keyboards.

proloquo2go has a variety of different grid sizes, and you can also program your own custom grid size. 7x11 seems to be the most commonly used one, but personally i've had no issues using 8x16. it offers two different vocabulary sets, Crescendo and Gateway, with the latter being available through an in-app purchase. the Crescendo vocabulary focuses on motor planning, although i personally think proloquo2go falls slightly short in this area compared to other robust AAC apps such as Speak For Yourself and LAMP Words For Life.

proloquo2go homepage (8x16 advanced crescendo vocabulary)

words are organised by parts of speech, and the app utilises a folder system, with most "fringe" vocabulary words being 4-5 clicks away and most core words being 1 click from the homepage. the words tend to move around a lot, ie. the button for "food" is in a different place from the button for the "food" folder, it doesn't follow as in CoughDrop or SfY. you could likely rearrange the buttons manually to fix this, if you had the time.

there are also alphabetical folders for adjectives and verbs, which, while helpful, can impede motor planning slightly (eg. the word "care" can be found through both actions>feelings>care and actions>alphabet>C>care.)

a fantastic feature of proloquo2go is the word popups, where you can press + hold on a word to choose the inflection. this saves time and space, allowing you to fit more core words on the home page, and allows for faster sentence building. you can change the length of time a button should be pressed before the word popup appears - like almost everything in proloquo2go, the interaction features are fully customisable for easiest access.

a progressive language feature is available with larger grid sizes, with the option of the "explore" button, which shows all hidden buttons and allows the user to search for a word. the progressive language feature has 10 levels on the largest grid size (9x16), which is definitely enough to give users room to grow as their language skills develop.

the display, color coding system, background color, border color, message window size, and so much more that i can't fit in this post is ALL fully customizable, and you can upload your own images for buttons, in addition to the extensive library of SymbolStix symbols that come free with the app. editing and creating buttons can all be done completely offline, and is a very quick and easy process.

the search feature is robust and quick, and guides a user to the button they're looking for. the only issue that some may find frustrating is that there are duplicate buttons in different folders.

proloquo2go is available in four languages: english, spanish, french, and dutch. it comes pre-programmed with a huge range of Acapela voices, including multiple US and UK english child voices, and one teen english voice. there are also two bilingual child voices, both spanish/english. voice customization can be done within the app, with multiple levels of pitch and speed available for selection. it's very easy to switch between languages, and speech is fluid with only a small pause if you've used multiple languages in one sentence.

the typing view is versatile and fully customisable, and easy to access from the home page. you can add typed words to the message bar, or speak them from the typing page. however, i have found that there is often a short delay when adding typed words to the message bar. in addition to this, typed sentences do not automatically clear, and it can sometimes take around a second to manually clear them. this isn't a big deal by any means, but i did feel it was worth mentioning.

another possible downside to proloquo2go is there is no Hold That Thought feature, however, it does come fully equipped with message history, and in my opinion, its extensive range of features and robust vocabulary more than makes up for any small flaws in this app. it also doesn't have a free trial version, but if you have access to an SLP this shouldn't be a problem.

hi! today i'll be reviewing Chatterboards AAC, a free app available in the app store (not for android.)

this app is pretty much what i'd expect from a free AAC app. it covers some of the basic functions, and it's possible to program any grid size, however, my biggest problem with this app is that it doesn't come pre-programmed with any fully functional communication boards - you have to manually configure every single individual button yourself. i started with trying to program an 8x16 board, but since you have to create every slot individually, i got bored about two rows in, and gave up before i even began trying to give the buttons actual words, let alone symbols. i think this app could be usable for someone with a lot of time and patience, but i know most advanced AAC users are forced to program their own devices, and i just don't think this is a good solution for that demographic.

moving onto the pre-programmed boards, i feel like they could be useful for very young users, as they do cover a small range of phrases (feelings, 'i want to', yes/no, and a larger board called "core vocab sample".) however, as soon as you need to move up to a larger board, you're forced to manually change everything again, and the placement of the buttons also moves as you add more. this makes the app practically useless for learning motor planning and progressive language.

the "core vocab" board is an 8×9 grid, and covers most basic core words - except it seems like they forgot about verb inflections entirely. it almost looks as though it was copied from a more robust AAC app such as proloquo2go or speak for yourself, but clearly missing the features in those apps that allow you to conjugate verbs correctly.

(what if i want to say "you are"..?)

what surprised me the most about this app is that there also isn't a simple keyboard text-to-speech feature, you're forced to stick to the boards within the app. i can't see this being very practical for frequent and fulltime AAC users, especially those who are older and/or more literate. the voices are also very robotic, and each button speaks as you press it - i can't find a way to disable this.

in all honesty, i wouldn't recommend this app to any long-term AAC users, although i feel as though it definitely has potential and i might just be missing something. it could be useful for young children whose parents aren't sure how they'd respond to simple AAC (eg. kids unfamiliar with the concept of a button that generates speech.) otherwise, i don't think this app is a long-term or robust AAC solution, although i'm sure there are people helped by it.