Speech therapist approved

I’m a speech therapist and I actually like this AAC app. Long term, I would want something more robust, like the free Weave Chat app, or one of the full featured (and unfortunately high cost) AAC apps like Grid, LAMP, TouchChat with WordPower, TD Snap, etc. But I do recognize that those more robust communication apps can feel really intimidating to people not used to AAC. This more streamlined app would feel much more accessible to someone still getting used to the idea of AAC. That the basic version is free and pro is less than $15 makes its price accessible as well. I like how it tries to preserve motor planning to the extent you can with scrolling. It allows you to go into settings and hide and unhide buttons (and there are a bunch of premade ones that are simply hidden, so go in and unlock them!). You can add your own folders and buttons quite easily. And the style has a very child friendly feel to it, which I’ve found helps caregivers and staff believe it will work. (In reality I’ve found that the kids actually are less intimidated by lots of buttons and choices than adults! But getting an adult to believe enough to try a communication app and then model on it for their child is the critical thing.) A tip for anyone trying AAC with their child: AAC learning is very much like how babies learn speech! It starts with nonsense babbling (pushing all kinds of buttons with no meaning). People tend to think that their child is “playing” with the communication app and say it’s not working, but that’s actually the first step in the process of learning! Let them play with all their words and add meaning to it. Have playful conversations with them like you would with a babbling baby! If they type “bankbankbankbankbankhomehomepool” you can give meaning by saying something like “You know, I would rather be at the pool than at a bank, too! Then I would jump in the pool, splash!” You can even push POOL and BANK on your own device as you talk about it. If it’s time to eat, you can touch eat and then give them food. You don’t have to force them to touch it too - you wouldn’t force a baby to say something. Just like with a baby, you show how it’s done over and over and make it fun and eventually they’ll start trying, too! This is a great little starter AAC app for people new to AAC and I definitely recommend it for those purposes. Thanks to the developers for making it!