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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

TapToTalk in All Languages

We are happy to announce that TapToTalk can now be used with all languages. Yes, we do mean all.

Sounds, of course, can be recorded in any language. Now text for picture captions and descriptions can be entered in TapToTalk Designer in any language. The Nintendo App has certain restrictions on the characters it displays, as described below, but the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Web apps can display and play any language.

TapToTalk documentation is in English, and the user interface in TapToTalk Designer is in English, so for design work, a limited familiarity with English is helpful.

Nintendo AppiPhone/iPod/iPad/Web Apps
SoundsRecord in any languageRecord in any language
Picture captions and descriptions:
English and European character set
Accented characters displayed
without accent marks
All character sets displayed
Picture captions and descriptions:
All other character sets
Not displayedAll character sets displayed

Now portable, customizable, affordable, socially acceptable AAC is available for children everywhere, regardless of language.

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

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Happy Birthday TapToTalk

It's TapToTalk's first birthday! And what a year it has been!

The tyke has certainly grown up fast. Now used in hundreds and hundreds of schools by thousands of kids, TapToTalk has added platforms, features and functions all year long in response to your feedback. And we'll be announcing even more in the coming weeks and months. So keep those ideas coming and stay tuned!

Nearly all our marketing is by word-of-mouth. So TapToTalk wants to thank all of you, and especially our 2,000 Facebook fans. Spread the word so we can help ever more children communicate better. Together, we're making portable, customizable, affordable, socially acceptable communication devices a reality for non-verbal and partially-verbal children everywhere.

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

Monday, September 13, 2010

TapToTalk, the Partially Verbal Child and Expressive Language Disorder

We market TapToTalk as being for "non-verbal" children. However, this is really shorthand for "non-verbal and partially verbal" children. But what exactly do we mean by "partially verbal?" We mean children who can speak but have an expressive language disorder.

Expressive language disorder occurs when a child cannot express his or her thoughts and desires through speech at the same level as peers of the same intelligence. The child may not have problems pronouncing words, at least no more so than is age-typical. But the child does have problems putting words together in sentences. The child seemingly cannot recall the right word, and grammar and word usage are often incorrect. Vocabulary and the range of thoughts the child can express are more limited than are those of equally intelligent peers. Symptoms may include not properly using pronouns; leaving out verbs or articles; excessively using non-specific nouns and pronouns like "it," "thing" and stuff."

Though they struggle with expressive speech, these children usually can understand speech as well as their equally intelligent peers. They understand much more sophisticated language than they can speak. So a simple rule of thumb is that when comprehension far exceeds expression, you may be dealing with expressive language disorder. But be aware that "comprehension exceeds expression" is typical of all youngsters first learning to talk, and children develop speech at different rates. So if you are concerned about your child's speech development, see a speech professional for an evaluation.

Expressive language disorder may be secondary to another condition like autism, apraxia or cerebral palsy (and there are many others). Or the root cause may be unknown and there may not seem to be any other underlying condition.

Regardless of cause, TapToTalk works great for children with expressive language disorder. The child taps a familiar picture and a proper sentence is played, expressing a complete thought. But TapToTalk is more than a "talker." It is also a coach (and a very patient one at that!). The child communicates better with the help of the AAC device, and at the same time learns to improve expressive speech by imitating the sounds from TapToTalk. Since you can control the pictures used and the sounds played, you can calibrate them to the child's individual progress, increasing the sophistication and range of language and thoughts expressed as the child progresses.

One concern sometimes raised is that AAC may become a crutch and discourage improved verbal communication. The evidence is the opposite. Children who use AAC like TapToTalk make more verbal attempts and improve the quality and quantity of verbalizations.

So let's give all our kids the voice they deserve!

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

Monday, September 6, 2010

My Friend, My Voice: Getting Regular Ed and Special Ed Kids Interacting

Most everyone agrees that getting regular education and special education students interacting with each other is good for all of them. Among the benefits are that it builds understanding and acceptance of differences, and often enhances the self-esteem of the special ed kids. Friendships development. Good things happen.

So we were struck by the idea one educator mentioned to us. She has the regular ed children record the TapToTalk sounds for her non-verbal and partially-verbal special ed students. They pair up, so one child becomes the standard voice for his or her buddy.

It does not take a lot of imagination to see how many ways this could be a great idea. So we thought we'd share it with all of you. Maybe it would work in your setting.

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
 
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