Go Talk Now App: A Slick AAC Tool

Disclaimer: I really am not a static display device fan. Seriously not a fan, as in I groan audibly when one of my new patients tells me he uses a static display device at school for his communication.  I hate for children who really need a comprehensive communication system to be given 20 buttons and sent on their way. It makes me clinically insane. If the static display device is part of the AAC system, okay, but if it is THE communication system, ugh.  So you can imagine GoTalks haven't been on the top of my go to communication device list.

Then I wandered into an ATIA presentation and saw this: the GoTalk Now App that is pretty awesome. I beg forgiveness from the Attainment Company Gods (of whom I have been a career long fan) and am here to announce that I am a Reformed Go Talk Aficionado.

This app has all the tools of a comprehensive communication app in a build it yourself version.  The content that is available is in an early stage of development, but the potential, ENDLESS.

So with this app you have the ability to create a page of 25 buttons and with a few clicks drop it down to a 2 button page. You can access a quick message popup on every page. You can turn on a message window. It's simple to add a photo symbol to a button from your library or camera. Don't have your own photo? A couple of taps and you can search the internet and drop an image on your button.  Multiple images can be placed on a single button. Buttons can speak a synthesized message or you can record your own. Not only can you make grids for communication, you can easily make scenes for context based messages. And it SCANS. Craziness!  It's an amateur AAC page developers dream. Easy to use, easy to customize with a ton of great features.

There are several options to get started with the GoTalk Now App:
GoTalk Now Free- one book with 3 pages, Free
GoTalk Start-  one book with 5 pages, $19.99
GoTalk Now- unlimited books and pages, voices, templates, backup and restore, and sharing via wifi, $80
GoTalk Now Plus- all of use above plus Symbolstix library, Ready, Set, Communicate book and Acapela voices, $150

This app is one to have in every classroom and is also a great simple app to trial AAC with your child.  It has potential to help teachers and therapists introduce vocabulary symbols, especially for activity based boards. I believe it has potential to give students an ability to participate in their environment, learn new symbols or to practice more advanced syntax and morphology in a low distraction environment.  For my purposes, it has become an exceptional evaluation tool.  If you took the time to build it, you could create a communication app with absolutely everything you could possibly need for a 25 location comprehensive communication system.

A real disclaimer: I was given an evaluation version of this app to test out. Then again, I'm given a lot of apps. I only talk about the good ones :)

Vicki Clarke