Proloquo2Go: The Original Comprehensive AAC App

I had the opportunity to meet Sam Sennott at ATIA the very first year he co-introduced Proloquo2Go to the world. At that time the app was available on the only mobile device we had, the iPhone. One of our therapists at the time, Adina Bradshaw, had a patient, Ryan, whose mother had heard about it and had one of the first versions available. The exciting thing about that first look at Proloquo2Go was that it was the first AAC app I had seen that had a comprehensive vocabulary system. I was truly shocked that someone had created an app that had potential to be used as a "full service" communication solution. Up to this point all the "AAC apps" were glorified choice boards. This app had pragmatic and context based organization, a categorical dictionary, social messaging options, a keyboard and word prediction. Over the years updates have included a core word page set, the ability to save and share over the internet and enhanced customization options.



Proloquo2Go remains a standard in the AAC app world with good reason. It has the tools you need to create a highly customized communication app for your individual child. Users can add personal photos easily. You can rearrange vocabulary, hide buttons, color code and, change the number of buttons on each page to simplify for difficult concepts.



TIPS: There is a bit of a learning curve when you want to move beyond basic modifications on Proloquo2Go. Each page is actually 2 pages plus a storage page. You can elect to have buttons live on either one of the two "live" pages (primary or secondary) or you can save the button for later use in the "storage" page. This is a very unique method of arranging buttons. The system is handy when you want to add new vocabulary from your storage or, when you want to highlight certain words by moving them onto the first page of the set. It is so unique though, it wasn't immediately obvious to me on my first attempt at customization.



The other less than obvious tip to know about Proloqou2Go is that you can manage the appearance of each page through the "folders" tab on the edit page. In this tab you can decide how many columns you want on that specific page. By selecting "make default view" you can have that number of columns appear regardless of the default number of buttons which appears on the other pages. You can also modify pages with different number of columns in advance so that you can start teaching concepts with a few buttons per page but then easily advance to more buttons without sacrificing your modifications.



You can also place buttons on specific locations on a page by setting "element order" to "free positioning" on the folders tab. This option lets you put buttons where you want, group buttons and put spaces in between to ease the visual scanning demands for your child.



There are many other tips and tools for Proloqou2Go that you can access here:

http://www.assistiveware.com/product/proloquo2go/resources



All in all Proloquo2Go remains an excellent app for comprehensive communication for users who are comfortable with a grid based system. Like most of the good AAC apps, the quality really depends on the amount of time and effort you expend in learning the flexible features and understanding the organization of the vocabulary. As always, partners speaking AAC to their kids are the critical component to success. This is an app that gives you all the words you need to interact effectively. Even after a few years and many competing products, Proloquo2Go remains in our top 5 AAC app choices.



Sam Sennott blogs here with some helpful info and resources:

http://www.alltogetherwecan.com

Disclosure: DTA is a resource center for sharing Proloqou2Go and Proloquo4Text as well as a variety of other AAC app developer and device manufacturers. We have long term loans for dedicated devices and professional AAC apps donated to our clinic for patient trials.




Vicki Clarke

The "chat" page with some modifications to give visual cues to help students learn the meaning of social comments.

Modification to the "places" page by grouping places by category and color coding to assist patients in locating vocabulary.