Re: Re: Are communication apps needed if...?

January 13, 2011

It is not wexactly what I said. I believe that communicating is vital to

allow our children to grow. Without communication, there is frustration.

And that ain't pretty!! However, I always weigh the actual dollar cost to

benefit. Also, all these gadgets were not acvailable for my son when he was

younger and ow he isn't interested.

My feeling is that if your child beneftits and wants to use these

technologies, then go for it. IF this is another something you need to

'encourage' and it is stressful, then why????

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 7:10 PM, agirlnamedsuess21 <

agirlnamedsuess@...> wrote:

>

> So, you think we ought to stick with all we have (signs, PECS, and

> continuing toimprove her speech intelligence) instead of purchasing

> expensive apps to complement the speech? We will still purchase apps, but

> not so sold on the ones like Tap 2 Talk, etc...because I do not want to

> spend a lot of money on something in hopes of it helping him to gain more

> speech. We could probably use language apps more to improve his language and

> reading apps to improve his reading/spelling.

>

> >

> > >

> > > My son has an IPAD and we are constantly looking for new apps to help

> him

> > > with developing his speech, language, and overall cognition.

> > > I have seen a lot of seemingly good apps that resemble pecs boards or

> > > boardmaker type programs for AT (like : I WANT ___ )where the child

> chooses

> > > the picture of what he wants, for example, in order to communicate.

> > > If my son is verbal (although not always intelligible) and uses sign

> > > language to fill in for his unitelligible speech, then is there really

> a

> > > justification for getting one of these types of communication apps, or

> will

> > > this place a hamper on him being so verbal? I seriously do not want him

> to

> > > go from being verbal to replacing his speech with a computer app.

> > > So I am wondering if any of these expensive apps would be an asset to

> my

> > > child with where he is in speech and language development right now?

> > > Any thoughts?

> > >

> >

> > --

> > Sara- different pathways lead to Nirvana.

> >

January 16, 2011

I'm finding this thread interesting. We just bought an iPad (for me for my

birthday and the kids will " borrow " it and Darwyn will NOT use it without an

adult holding tight to it!). There are a lot of great apps that will definitely

encourage Darwyn (6) to write letters and numbers and name animals. He's already

captivated by the First words app and has almost mastered dragging his finger to

move the letters. And he listens to the words and laughs at the animals jumping.

But I'm debating Proloquo2go, Taptotalk. Right now, Darwyn is doing great with

his PECs and it has the added relational interaction where he has to find

someone to give his pictures too whereas I worry he'll just stim on the iPad

(tapping it for noise reinforcement - I already noticed he likes the beep for a

wrong choice in an animal choice game). As for speech, I find that every time we

increase his capacity to communicate (with signs, PECs, pictures, DVD covers,

singing) he increase his attempts to speak or at least verbalize. I can't

imagine any app that talks would decrease his speech as he learns so much from

repetition. An app that says " I want a sandwich " every day 3x a day will (I'm

almost certain) eventually elicit more speech from him. But I'm still hesitant.

Seems to me tap2talk costs $99 every single year whereas proloquo is $189

forever. Seems both can be individualized. I don't want to limit Darwyn and I

want something he can use for years if possible to predict, but at the same time

they both seem more complex than he'll ever achieve or even want. I'm

interested if anyone has greatly simplified either of these for their kids and

how its worked out.