TapToTalk on the DSi XL: Bigger Pictures, Bigger Sound

We are delighted to announce that TapToTalk runs just fine on the new Nintendo DSi XL. The main difference is that the pictures are larger and the sound is louder. And there is not a thing you need to do to your current TapToTalk to use it with a DSi XL. It automatically takes advantage of the larger screen.

The DSi XL is a larger version of the DSi. The main functional difference is that it has a 4.2" screen as compared to the DSi's 3.25" screen. That translates into 93% more viewing area. This is a good fit for kids who can better use larger pictures. Of course, the larger XL does not fit into a pocket like its little DS brothers, and is heavier. But for some kids, a bigger device will be easier to use.

The XL has a wider viewing angle and improved battery life compared to other DS models, Both of these improvements make it even more friendly for TapToTalk users. It also has improved audio quality and loudness, which can be especially helpful for noisy environments. The speakers seem to be the same type that are in the DSi, but with bigger openings in the case, resulting in more volume.

You can now run your TapToTalk albums on any of the Nintendo DS series devices: DS, DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL. Just pop the TapToTalk card into any one of them and power up. That means you can try your TapToTalk on the XL at the store before you buy one.

The XL was available in the UK before it was available in the US. So some of our UK customers have already started using it. Here is what Dorothy says: "It was well worth waiting for the XL, the icons are a good size and can easily be used." She adds that she still wishes that the DS speakers were a bit louder. Ah, well, you cannot have everything you wish for.

We have a video for you comparing TapToTalk on the DSi and DSi XL side-by-side.

For more about the DSi XL, go to the Nintendo web site. There's also a thorough review on CNET.

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

How a Teacher and Student Both Have Fun with TapToTalk

Joanne O'Leary is always willing to share her experiences with fellow TapToTalk users. She's kept us posted on how she uses TapToTalk with her non-verbal student in Why a Little Girl with Apraxia Loves Her TapToTalk and  Another Great Way a Girl with Special Needs Uses Her TapToTalk. Here is her latest report:

I have been having so much fun designing my student's TapToTalk. Social interaction is a big part of a child's life. I have one screen of feelings. She loves to go over and tell her friends, "I like you, you're my friend" with her TapToTalk. I also have a pic of someone getting pinched and I recorded the words, "don't pinch me it hurts."

On the play screen, I have a picture of a nurse and if she chooses that it goes to all the things in the dramatic play center we have set up for our doctor's office: shot, bandaid, stethoscope, etc. 

Thanks again, Joanne. We all appreciate your ideas and love to hear about your student. She's lucky to have you.

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
www.taptotalk.com
blog@taptotalk.com

Getting TapToTalk Help When You Need It

There are a number of ways to get help when you have a question or problem using TapToTalk.

There is a Help link at the top-right of the TapToTalk Designer screen. It is full of web pages, videos and printable PDFs on various topics, organized by category. Be sure to scroll down the list to see if your issue is covered.

The same help that is in TapToTalk Designer is available in the Support Center on taptotalk.com. You can access Support Center by clicking on the Customer Zone (exclamation point) icon at the bottom-right of every taptotalk.com page.

If you need help using help, the first help in the list is there to help you. (Okay, we got silly and used "help" four times in one sentence.)

If you work in a school, you may find our YouTube videos are blocked. Your IT folks may unblock YouTube if you ask them. Or you can use our alternate video site. IT usually will unblock this if it is also blocked since it is a more private site.

Contact TapToTalk for answers to questions and help solving problems. The fastest way to do this is to send an email using the Customer Support link on the taptotalk.com Contact page. We are very prompt responding to these messages. You can also call us at the tech support number listed on the Contact page, but we generally respond faster to the emails.

Use the Discussions tab on the TapToTalk Facebook page. You can access this page using the Facebook icon at the bottom-left of any page on taptotalk.com. Check out the discussion topics, or start your own. Get information from fellow users as well as TapToTalk staff. Oh, and while you're there, be sure to become a TapToTalk fan so useful information comes to you on your Facebook page.

Check out the Product Tips and Tricks posts on the TapToTalk blog. Just click the Blog link on www.taptotalk.com. On the TapToTalk Blog page, look at the categories on the right side.

We want you to be successful, so please do not hesitate to let us know when you need some assistance. Our support staff is here to, yes, help.

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

Come On, Jackson, You Can Do It!

TapToTalk has a lot of Facebook fans. And Facebook tells us the top cities our fans are from, in terms of number of fans.

Here is the list, in order, as of yesterday: Los Angeles, Jackson, New York, Brisbane, Manchester, Sydney, San Jose, Columbus, Dublin, Chicago, Dallas, Melbourne, Perth, Seattle, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston, Indianapolis, Palo Alto and London.

We are delighted to have so many fans in Australia, the UK and Ireland. And we are not surprised that Los Angeles and New York are in the top three. But we are really rooting for Jackson, which is a close second, to see if it can overtake the City of Angels and stay ahead of the Big Apple.

Now, the problem we have is that there are eleven cities named Jackson in the US. And Facebook does not tell us what state our Jackson is in.

So, Jacksonites, we have two requests: recruit some more TapToTalk fans and overtake Los Angeles, and let us know what state you are in! You can post that on our Facebook page.

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

Tips and Tricks: How One Mom Set Up Her TapToTalk Albums

Here is how Carrie Goodale Dunlap got started setting up TapToTalk albums for her son who loves to sing:

We have had Tap To Talk for a few weeks and so far we have two albums, Home and School. Under the Home album we have 7 categories. Play, eat, drink, go, help, bathroom, and singing (we sing a lot). Under the play category I have puzzle, books, music, animal figures, TV, and his music blocks toy (his fav toy). Under the TV and book categories I plan on adding images of specific DVDs and books that are his favorites.

Under the food category I have snacks, fruit, sandwiches, pizza, breakfast, and ice cream. I uploaded images for the specific foods he likes [that] go with each of those categories for him to choose. Some of those go a few "layers" deep. For example if he wants Cheez-Its he presses food, then snack, then crackers, and then the type of cracker he wants.

Under the sing category I uploaded images of his favorite songs. Some songs that have parts for him to participate. I added additional images that go with them. So for Old MacDonald he presses sing, then old MacDonald, then which animal he wants to sing about. I also did "wheels on the bus" like that so once he selects the bus, images representing the parts of the song come up and he can choose which ones he wants to sing about as we go. I did audio of them as well.

I will be adding a family category soon.

For school (my son is in Kindergarten), the main categories are snack, rewards, bathroom, help, therapy, and sing. Under the therapy category I put OT, PT, Speech and under each of those the specific activities that they do. I have the DSi so I went into the school and took a bunch of pictures with it of the items that he actually uses and then uploaded them to the [TapToTalk Designer] website and added audio.

There is a lot more that I plan on adding as we incorporate the TTT more and more into his school day. I need to figure out how to use the jumps as well.

We LOVE Tap To Talk!

We love hearing about how you're using TapToTalk, Carrie. We especially like the ideas about using TapToTalk to sing with your son. And thanks for sharing this with others.

How do you design your TapToTalk albums? If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

Home School an Autistic, Non-Verbal Child in a Toy Store?

Learning happens everywhere. Tammy Lessick is always on the lookout for ways to reinforce her child's learning and increase his communication skills. This is from her blog post on the website Autisable:

TapToTalk allows me to take school outside of the home...This is what has been the most important part of our home schooling. When my son decides that he will not do any work at home, I take school out of the home and into the community. I’m working on getting my son to independently point at things when asked. He prefers taking my hand and directing it to what he is selecting. He has responded well with using a stylus on the computer and on the Nintendo. 

The toy aisle can be a hunt for animals (including dinosaurs), a treasure hunt for items that are determined by answering a question, or a lesson in math. The key is to turn whatever environment you are in, (a store, the park, a hiking path), into a learning environment. School does not have to occur only at a table. You can leave the house and continue your teaching in an environment that your child considers fun. Be creative, be adaptable, and always remember that you are only limited by what you determine are your limitations.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Tammy.

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

Tips and Tricks: Jump To It!

One of the really handy features of TapToTalk Designer's Album Outliner is called a Jump. A Jump is a part of your Album Outline that you may want to reuse in more than one place. For example, you may want to "Jump To" your child's favorite snack foods in several places in your album. With a Jump, you could put a "Hungry" picture wherever you want, and have it point to a "Snack" Jump. Another common example is a Jump of "colors" that you can reuse in various places.

There are two ways to make a Jump.

The first way is to click on the "New" link next to the word "Jump" in the left panel of Album Outliner. This let's you build a new Jump from scratch. Once it is built, any picture in the main Outline can "Jump To" that group of pictures. You do that by clicking on a picture in the main outline (make sure it is showing in the left window of the album emulator), then click on "Jump To" in the left panel's menu. You'll get a list of the Jumps you've created; just click on one and press okay. We call the picture to which you added a jump the Jump Picture. Now, if a picture already has other pictures below it in the the outline, it cannot be a jump picture. This leads us to the second way of making a Jump.

The second way is to make a Jump out of an existing branch in the Outline. To do this, pick a picture in the outline that goes to a group of pictures that you would like to reuse. Once again, make sure that you see this picture in the left window of the emulator. Then, click on the "Make Jump" link. Just like that, the picture is now a Jump Picture and the branch of the outline below is now a Jump that you can name.

There is a help file (it's a printable pdf) in both TapToTalk Designer Help and Support Center that explains all the details of this, called "Using Jumps in Album Outliner."

A little trick...if you have a part of an outline that you think is in the wrong place, turning it into a Jump is a good way to "move" it wherever you want.

There's a Jump in the Starter Album that you may want to look at. It's called Drinks. There is another picture in the Starter Album that could very logically "Jump To" Drinks. Can you find it?

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

Ask Questions to Help Make Your Special Needs Child Safer on the School Bus

Picture this: A special needs child is on a school bus and can't communicate to the bus driver his or her stop, or worse yet the bus driver doesn't notice a non-verbal child who is way in the back of the bus. An experience like this actually happened and is described below and in the Apraxia-Kids blog by Sharon Gretz.

Two weeks ago we learned of a very disturbing story via the internet about a four year old girl with childhood apraxia of speech who was left unattended and forgotten on her school bus for over three hours. Little blond Ava was unable to yell out for help. Despite school district bus safety policies and procedures, the bus driver allegedly failed to do the seat by seat check that would have located Ava in the rear of the bus. An investigation ensued and shortly thereafter the bus driver resigned.

Ava’s family would like the Apraxia-KIDS community to understand how important it is to ask questions about your school’s bus safety procedures and to ask for a written copy.

So the bottom line is this: What can parents do to best protect their child with limited intelligible speech?

1) Make sure that your school district has bus safety procedures in writing and assure that you get a copy of the policy.

2) Inquire about whether your child’s bus driver has had special needs training. Arrange a meeting between school administration and your child’s bus driver to discuss your son or daughter’s communication needs.

3) Include travel safety and transportation details as part of your child’s I.E.P. Transportation is considered a “related service” and so specific transportation details can and should be included when the IEP team has agreed to include transportation for your child. The Individual Transportation Plan would be a tremendous addition to the IEPs of children who are unintelligible or nonverbal.

4) Communication goals at school and at home should include self protection and self identification goals. Children with communication challenges need a way or need practice with skills such as calling for help (“Help Me”); how to gain someone’s attention (“Hey you!” “Wait!”). These phrases can be incorporated into speech targets or augmentative communication.

The TapToTalk can be customized to include the necessary pictures and sounds that could aid in achieving the communications goals (as in Sharon's 4th point).



If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
http://www.taptotalk.com/
blog@taptotalk.com

Kids Design Their Own TapToTalk Albums?

We tend to think of TapToTalk Designer as a tool someone uses to set up and maintain TapToTalk albums for a child. But many of you are working with your child while you use Designer. And some kids, especially older ones, are setting up their own albums.

It often starts with picking out pictures. Whether it's from our library, pictures you find online, or your own photos, kids love to help select them. This can lead them to showing you photos they want included, thus communicating, "I want to say this with my TapToTalk."

And we all know how adept kids are with computers. So it should be no surprise when a child wants to take over and do her own album. After all, the point is for her to communicate, and she knows what she wants to be able to express.

So if you have not already done so, consider involving your child with TapToTalk Designer. Try working on an album together. You may be be amazed and thrilled by what happens when you empower your child this way.

If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.

The TapToTalk Team
www.taptotalk.com
blog@taptotalk.com