SPEAKall! {app review}

As I may or may not have told you, I had an AAC internship in graduate school.  I loved it!  One of the big discussions we had was tablet technology versus speech generating devices (or devices created specifically for AAC).  I was excited when I was contacted by SPEAK MODalities about a new AAC app to check out.

Watch this video:

A great place to start is the extensive user manual.  It walks you through every part of the app and how it works!

One thing I like about this app is that it's designed to help move the AAC world towards tablets.  More specifically, it's designed to help a student move from PECS to the tablet.

This app is focused on sentence formation.  The student will simply touch the word/ symbol they want, and it appears at the bottom in the blue box.  When the sentence is formed, touch the "SPEAKall" button to the right, and the app will say the sentence.

Editing in this app is pretty straightforward.  You can edit the page set or each individual symbol. It comes preloaded with symbols in each page set, but you can add other symbol to a given set in order to customize it to your student.  

You can also edit the individual symbol.  You can record your own audio for it, adjust the image size, change the label for that symbol, and determine which media collection the image will go under.  You can also make notes under "Media Item Notes."

Bottom line, this is a great AAC app.  It's user friendly and easy to customize for the individual using it.  It's backed by research out of Purdue University (you can read more about it here).  I appreciate the simplicity of the app and that it is not overwhelming and does not create a sensory overload for our students.  I really like being able to add my own pictures, which allows for further customization. It's an affordable, intuitive option that I think many students with autism or developmental disabilities will benefit from.

Note: A copy of the app was provided for my review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine.