We're happy to announce that TapToTalk runs on the just announced Barnes & Noble Nook Color 1.2. The TapToTalk Nook App is available free from the Nook app store. It is actually our Android App updated to handle the new Nook release, which now has its own app store.
At $249, the Nook is a very economical tablet for running TapToTalk, let alone the other apps that will be available on the Nook app store. And this is the first eReader with an available AAC app.
As always, this TapToTalk capability is free to current subscribers. You can run your TapToTalk albums on the Nook and as many of our supported devices as you wish. No extra charge. And the free TapToTalk app with sample albums is free to anyone.
So give TapToTalk a try on your Nook!
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
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
A Call for Research--"My child no longer needs AAC"
At TapToTalk, we often hear from our customers when it is time to renew their TapToTalk Designer subscription. One of the reasons that a customer does not renew is that their child is now able to communicate without the need for AAC.
Or, as one TapToTalk Mom wrote us, "My son has no further use for this way of communication as he now is quite verbal and talks non-stop!"
Certainly, we all would love this outcome. But how often does it occur? For what kinds of non-verbal conditions (other than the injuries that create short-term speech loss)? Are there factors that point to this outcome and can be used predictively? Are there associated factors that, when accompanied by portable, socially acceptable AAC, lead to independent speech?
As an AAC vendor, we respect every customer's privacy, and we only know their experiences when they choose to tell us. What we know tends to be highly anecdotal and superficial. That said, we hear from parents, like the mom quoted above, often enough to say that there are a surprising number of children who appear to be unable to express themselves verbally without AAC and, a year later, are speaking independently. How do we know it's a year? Because TapToTalk Designer is an annual subscription, and we survey those who do not renew. That is often when we hear about this.
We're not going to try to quantify this phenomenon because our data are not scientific. Rather, we suggest that this is ripe for some serious academic research, especially now that affordable AAC apps on standard devices (like the iPad and Nintendo) have put AAC into the hands of so many more people. We'd be glad to cooperate with such research.
Parents and professionals, if you know of someone who is interested in doing this kind of research, please make an introduction. Researchers, we’re here and ready to assist.
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
Or, as one TapToTalk Mom wrote us, "My son has no further use for this way of communication as he now is quite verbal and talks non-stop!"
Certainly, we all would love this outcome. But how often does it occur? For what kinds of non-verbal conditions (other than the injuries that create short-term speech loss)? Are there factors that point to this outcome and can be used predictively? Are there associated factors that, when accompanied by portable, socially acceptable AAC, lead to independent speech?
As an AAC vendor, we respect every customer's privacy, and we only know their experiences when they choose to tell us. What we know tends to be highly anecdotal and superficial. That said, we hear from parents, like the mom quoted above, often enough to say that there are a surprising number of children who appear to be unable to express themselves verbally without AAC and, a year later, are speaking independently. How do we know it's a year? Because TapToTalk Designer is an annual subscription, and we survey those who do not renew. That is often when we hear about this.
We're not going to try to quantify this phenomenon because our data are not scientific. Rather, we suggest that this is ripe for some serious academic research, especially now that affordable AAC apps on standard devices (like the iPad and Nintendo) have put AAC into the hands of so many more people. We'd be glad to cooperate with such research.
Parents and professionals, if you know of someone who is interested in doing this kind of research, please make an introduction. Researchers, we’re here and ready to assist.
The TapToTalk Team
www.taptotalk.com
blog@taptotalk.com
Sunday, April 10, 2011
TapToTalk AAC for Adults - Blackjack Anyone?
There is nothing about TapToTalk that confines its use to kids. In fact, we have heard of users ranging in age from 2 years old to 89 years old. We even have a category in our standard picture library called Food-Drinks-Adult. And you can always add you own pictures and sounds to personalize TapToTalk and meet individual needs.
Some the adults who use TapToTalk are autistic or have Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy. Others have become aphasic due to stroke or a head injury. Some just need TapToTalk temporarily until they regain the ability to speak. For them, TapToTalk can really reduce the frustration of experiencing the sudden loss of speech. Others have a long-term need for AAC.
Here is a brief video of a young woman who could no longer speak after a head injury. In the video, she is just being introduced to TapToTalk for the first time. Notice her wonderful smile when she realizes she can now ask for a smoothie. (We are happy to report that she is has recently started to talk again. Interestingly, she still uses TapToTalk to practice hand coordination.)
The iPad seems to be the current adult device of choice, because of its picture size, volume, and all the other things you can use it for. And some adults with physical disabilities that make using a mouse or tapping a screen difficult, take advantage of our single switch scanning (autoscanning) option. Single switch scanning lets you use a "big button" or other device to step through the pictures and select the one you want.
One speech therapist told us about an adult client who likes to play blackjack. So togther they developed a TapToTalk album containing all the words and phrases you need in order to play. They had fun choosing pictures for things like "hit me." We hear poker is next.
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
Some the adults who use TapToTalk are autistic or have Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy. Others have become aphasic due to stroke or a head injury. Some just need TapToTalk temporarily until they regain the ability to speak. For them, TapToTalk can really reduce the frustration of experiencing the sudden loss of speech. Others have a long-term need for AAC.
Here is a brief video of a young woman who could no longer speak after a head injury. In the video, she is just being introduced to TapToTalk for the first time. Notice her wonderful smile when she realizes she can now ask for a smoothie. (We are happy to report that she is has recently started to talk again. Interestingly, she still uses TapToTalk to practice hand coordination.)
The iPad seems to be the current adult device of choice, because of its picture size, volume, and all the other things you can use it for. And some adults with physical disabilities that make using a mouse or tapping a screen difficult, take advantage of our single switch scanning (autoscanning) option. Single switch scanning lets you use a "big button" or other device to step through the pictures and select the one you want.
One speech therapist told us about an adult client who likes to play blackjack. So togther they developed a TapToTalk album containing all the words and phrases you need in order to play. They had fun choosing pictures for things like "hit me." We hear poker is next.
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, April 4, 2011
Run Web App in Kiosk Mode on Windows
One of the problems kids may have running an application on a web browser is that they navigate away to another website or close the browser. Some of our users running the TapToTalk Web App would like to make it harder for the kids who use it to leave the app. This post is about how to do that on Windows.
Most web browsers running on Windows use F11 as a toggle for what is known as full-screen mode. Try it. Press F11 while running your web browser and all the navigation controls disappear. To get them back, press F11 again.
This helps, but a child can press F11 to exit full-screen mode. So here's how to use Internet Explorer in true kiosk mode.
The trick is to start Internet Explorer with a special command line. You can create a shortcut to do this. The command is:
iexplore.exe -k [url]
There are three parts to this line:
iexplore.exe is the actual name of the Internet Explorer porgram.
-k is called a command line switch. In this case, the -k tells Internet Explorer to run in kiosk mode.
[url] is a placeholder for the url you want to run. Don't just type [url]. Replase it with the url you want to run.
For example, here is how to run the TapToTalk Web App demo in kiosk mode:
iexplore.exe -k http://tttdemo.mytaptotalk.com/tttplayer.htm?id=demo&album=101
But how do you ever close the browser when it runs in kiosk mode? The trick is to press Alt-F4.
Note that there are plug-ins available for other browsers to run them in kiosk mode.
Thanks to our users who shared this tip with us.
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
Most web browsers running on Windows use F11 as a toggle for what is known as full-screen mode. Try it. Press F11 while running your web browser and all the navigation controls disappear. To get them back, press F11 again.
This helps, but a child can press F11 to exit full-screen mode. So here's how to use Internet Explorer in true kiosk mode.
The trick is to start Internet Explorer with a special command line. You can create a shortcut to do this. The command is:
iexplore.exe -k [url]
There are three parts to this line:
iexplore.exe is the actual name of the Internet Explorer porgram.
-k is called a command line switch. In this case, the -k tells Internet Explorer to run in kiosk mode.
[url] is a placeholder for the url you want to run. Don't just type [url]. Replase it with the url you want to run.
For example, here is how to run the TapToTalk Web App demo in kiosk mode:
iexplore.exe -k http://tttdemo.mytaptotalk.com/tttplayer.htm?id=demo&album=101
But how do you ever close the browser when it runs in kiosk mode? The trick is to press Alt-F4.
Note that there are plug-ins available for other browsers to run them in kiosk mode.
Thanks to our users who shared this tip with us.
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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