One of my biggest hopes for my daughter’s new iPad is that it will help give her a better ability to communicate, I’m so excited about this technology. And the kicker is this is actually cool equipment, as opposed to all of the clunky funky stuff special needs kids usually have as options. Read this great article that Michael at Blind Babies Foundation forwarded to me about what one little girl with low vision wrote to Steve Jobs about her iPad.

I’ve been exploring AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) apps to see where we should start. Here are some options we’ve been exploring, check back, as we try more options I’ll update this page. Do you have a great app that’s working for you? Let me know, I’d love to share!

This is where we’re starting:

Answers:YesNo HD
It’s pretty basic, but actually very functional, especially for the price of $3.99. It’s not just “Yes and No” but gives you many screens to customize with any two choices using your choice of voice, including recording your own, and button colors. You can have 4 different lesson plans, so if your child shares an iPad they can had their own bank of 6 stored button settings for what they are working on, and 3 other children can have their own settings. Super cost-effective, easy to set up and a great place to start for communication.

This is what we want to work up to:

Proloquo2Go
As stated in their description in the iTunes app store, “Proloquo2Go is for anyone who cannot afford spending thousands of dollars on an AAC device and yet wants a solution that is just as good if not better. SLPs, teachers and parents recommend it for children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, apraxia, ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury.”

This is the app I’ve heard referred to most frequently, it seems to be the one most schools are using in their special ed programs and was the first app my daughter’s DDD case manager recommended. It’s a very robust application, providing a huge vocabulary. It has accessibility features that work with those built into the iPad for voiceover, etc. The only drawback is the price, it’s $189, there’s no “try before you buy” and it does take some set up time. This program is too advanced at this point for my daughter mainly because it’s so vision based and she’s blind, so we’re starting with something simpler to get her to understand the accessibility features of the iPad, hopefully working up to this app.

Here are some other resources I’m exploring:

SNapps4kids.com – Special Needs Apps for Kids by Easter Seals of Greater Houston. A fantastic resource with everything from funding, to setting up your iPad to finding apps for your kid based on app functionality.

Washington Sensory Disabilities Services sent me this link to Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind – An app list for special needs kids by topic.