SoundingBoard-Easy (and free) AAC app for iPad

Sometimes, you don't want an AAC app that comes with thousands of buttons and lots of complex menus to have to learn.  Sometimes, you just want to quickly and easily create a board with a few pictures for your emerging communicators.  And sometimes, you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on an app that you're not even sure will work for your student.  If any of those "Sometimes" applies to you, then you might want to check out a FREE app from Ablenet called SoundingBoard.

SoundingBoard is an easy to use app that lets you quickly make communication pages (or "boards") for students.  These boards can be linked together to make a more complex communication system, or can just be selected as needed based on the setting and task.  The AbleNet website describes the app this way:

SoundingBoard is ONLY available for download at iTunes stores.

SoundingBoard transforms your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch into the latest in communication technology. In just minutes, you can create custom boards using AbleNet symbols or your own photos.

• Create boards with up to 20 message locations
• Virtually unlimited capacity; create boards for any situation
• Use the built-in AbleNet symbol library for instant access to hundreds of symbols
• Record messages of virtually any length for each symbol
• Use your own photo library for even greater flexibility and options
• Take your own photos using your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch and use them in a board immediately*
• Increase the physical size of the boards by using the iPad

If you haven't checked out this free resource yet, you should add it to your AAC toolbox.  It is a great app to have for many different situations.  My only caution about "build your own pages" apps is that, for students who have a lot to say, it may be a very frustrating experience to only be able to say the things my teacher and SLP get around to programming for me.  For those kinds of students, you may want to check out a more fully featured AAC app.

2 new fully featured AAC apps for Autism: AutisMate and Avaz

When most people think about AAC and the iPad, they usually think about Proloquo2go.  It is a great app that offers tons of preloaded vocabulary, along with a highly customizable interface to support lots of different levels of communicators.

  I have recently learned about two other apps that share many of the features that make Proloquo2go so popular.  They are called AutisMate, and Avaz.  Both apps are designed for students with autism, but would support many other students with cognitive and communication impairments.  It is always good to have options when individualized supports for students, and I hope this info will help you expand your AAC toolbox a bit today!

First, let's talk about  AutisMate.  It costs $149.99 and is available on the Apple app store.  This app is a unique blend of visual behavior supports and communication.  The AutisMate website says:

AutisMate is an iPad app for autism that improves communication and social and behavioral skills (life skills) for individuals with autism by reinforcing autism treatment through a comprehensive approach, offering all of the Visual Supports, including Visual Scenes, Visual Schedules, Video Modeling, Visual Stories and Grid-Based AAC.

The idea is that, since communication and behavior are so intertwined, why not combine them into the same app?  The interface is clean and easy to use, and the visual supports are great.  Check out the AutisMate website to see some great videos of the app in action.  I have also included a video demonstration by a mother of a child with autism showing how she uses the app at home.



Next up is the Avaz app. It costs $99.99 and is available on the Apple app store. Unlike AutisMate, which is a hybrid between a behavior and communication app, Avaz is an AAC app designed to rival Proloquo2go.  It offers many really nice features, including:

• 3 levels of vocabulary (500 - 5000 words)
• Easy customization
• Multiple types of vocabulary and communication strategies, including Core Words, a Keyboard with word prediction, a Mistake button, an Alert button (for getting someone's attention), and Grid based AAC.
• Can start with only 2 buttons on a page and grow from there.
• Can hide buttons and zoom in on buttons when tapped
• High quality voices
• Automatically tracks how the app is used during a session (instant data collection!)
• Lots of ways to adjust and change settings based on the student.

 This looks like a great app, with lots of great features, and at a very reasonable price for an app of this caliber.  Check out the Avaz website for more info.  I've also included a brief 1 minute video overview of the app for your enjoyment.

Ty gives a speech in class, even though he can't talk!

Some great teachers and a fabulous SLP at one of our middle schools have worked really hard to provide meaningful opportunities for students with disabilities to interact with their non-disabled peers.  One of those students, Ty, cannot speak for himself, but his teachers have found a way for him to communicate using a Step by Step sequencer device with pre-recorded voice messages that he activates with a switch when he moves his head.  The following video is of Ty giving a speech about his favorite movie, Disney Pixar's UP!  Ty's SLP communicated with Ty, his mom, and his teachers to identify his favorite video and some of the things he liked about it.  While Ty did not write this speech himself (the SLP did), I absolutely LOVE that he is able to give the speech in front of a class of his peers, following the same format that all of them are expected to use.  It is plain to see that he really enjoys the experience, and I'm sure at least some of the students in that class gained a new appreciation for Ty and what he is truly capable of.

That is the power of assistive technology, to give a voice to people who otherwise would not have any.  Please check out the video below.  I hope you will enjoy it, and it will get you thinking about things you could do in your classroom or home.



Note: if you are unable to view the video in this blog, try clicking this link to view it in a separate page.

A Literacy based lesson plan for students with severe disabilities

At the recent UATT conference, we had the change to attend a presentation from an SLP and music therapist from the Hartvigsen School in the Granite District in Utah.  They demonstrated a very well planned and executed lesson to teach students with severe disabilities a wide range of important skills in a brief (30-45 minutes) time period using AT, AAC, music, Core Vocabulary, and much more.  I really was impressed with how much thought went into the lesson, and how they were able to target important skills such as:

• Social reciprocity (greetings, farewells, conversations, etc.)
• Communication (including AAC for nonverbal students)
• Vocabulary
• Literacy
• Following 1 and 2 step directions
• Turn Taking
• Sensory/Tactile experiences
• Cause and Effect
• Civil Rights awareness
• and more!

The entire lesson was based on reading a nonfiction book about Martin Luther King Jr. They had carefully planned selected vocabulary and activities for each page of the story. While they included a lot of music into their lesson, you don't necessarily have to do so.  You also don't have to be a trained Music Therapist to teach a lesson like this.  I think a thoughtful teacher could use their lesson plan as a template to design any lesson to target the same skills with a literature based approach.  You can access a copy of their lesson plan by clicking here.

Simple, yet effective 1 page communication boards

We sometimes have the idea that alternative/agumentative communication (AAC) involves an expensive device or a fancy book with lots of velcro and laminated picture cards.  But, in reality, AAC can be very simple.  Sometimes all a student needs for effective communication is a simple, 1 page, laminated piece of paper.  This cheap and easy 1 page communication board could then be posted in a particular area (fridge, kitchen cabinet, door, window, etc.) or used in a particular setting (restaurant, watching TV, grocery store, etc.) to facilitate communication.

In this post, I have included several examples of simple 1 page communication boards that can be used in a variety of settings.  All of these boards were found online using Boardmaker Share, and then adapted for my purposes using Boardmaker software.  A colleague and I spent less than 5 minutes for each board!!  I hope these ideas will inspire you to create your own boards for your students to use in your classroom, at home, and in the community.

My first example is a simple "snack time" laminated place-mat with symbols to help a student make food/drink choices, request more, and comment about the food. Now your place-mat serves a far greater purpose than simply keeping the table clean!!

The next example is a page that could be taped to the door of the refrigerator.  You could even make various symbols for the different kinds of food that could be in the fridge (even if they aren't at the moment) and attach them to the page with velcro (or remove them) as the contents of the fridge changes every time you go to the store (or your teenager and his friends raid the fridge!)

These next two pages are designed for communicating while watching TV.  One is simply for choosing the type of show to watch (I LOVE the sumo wrestlers!).

This TV board incorporates a lot more communicative intents.  I wish I had made this board!

These next two pages are designed to post by the door.  Now the child can communicate where he/she wants to go when leaving the room.  The communication partners can also use the page to communicate to the child where they are going next.  This would be easy to adapt to a home setting instead of school setting.

 This next picture is actually more of a visual organizer than a communication board, but I just liked it so much I couldn't help but include it!

The last page I've included in this post is designed for use at McDonald's, of course.  A similar page could be made for any other restaurant you frequent.

I hope as you've read through these examples that you have thought of ways you could adapt this concept for use in your classroom, home, etc.  These really take very little time to make, yet could have a PROFOUND impact in the life of a child who struggles to communicate verbally.  I would love to hear in the comments section the other ways you have successfully used the concept of 1 page communication boards.