App Review – Tom Taps Speaks by Seer Technologies, Inc.

Tom Taps Speaks –  is a communication app that is aimed at individuals with special needs and communication difficulties, including autism. The app is available for free download from the iTunes store.

The iTunes store has the following description:

Firstly the app comes with 700 extremely clear symbols that are grouped into a variety of topics. These include:

People, Actions, Things, Feelings, Quick Phrases, Food, Drinks, Places, Toys, Pains, Short Words,, Body Parts, Hygiene, Clothing, Animals,, Weather, Count, Description, Sizes, Colors, Shapes and Time.

So as you can see, pretty much everything is covered. These cards can also be customized with your own photograph or image as well as recording your own voice. Tom never likes to hear my voice on apps, so I left the prerecorded voice on. However I did personalize a few of the cards.

The screen is very easy to navigate between using the picture cards and board, white board and keyboard. To be honest Tom found this easier to use than me and navigated from one screen to the other without any problem and without becoming frustrated as the transitions were seamless. This is always a huge worry when using any app on the iPad, as if they decide to stop or are slow he will become frustrated and anxious but this app is very fast and easy to use.

So the whole idea of this app is to use the various screens to communicate and this can be done in a variety of ways.

The Whiteboard allows you to doodle your thoughts and ideas and Tom did write his name using thsi feature but I was unable to capture it. My eldest son did the following drawing, just to  give you an idea.

As the website states; Go Picasso. If words and pictures can say no more, doodle your thoughts!

 The keyboard is also another useful feature, you can use words by themselves or add them to the picture cards. Tom likes to write his name a lot. This is shown below, I took a quick photo.

 

Once registered you can choose to upgrade to use customised boards. This is were you can record your own voice and add your own photos. I do find adding own photos a useful option but even if you choose to go with the free version the picture cards are extremely useful to use, and there are lots of them.

Registration is free and I would strongly recommend registering, even if you use the free version, as this will allow you to  unlock the parental settings. This allows you to access the store, as well as being able to delete and edit features om your boards.

So I whole heartedly recommend this app. It is affordable, or free, easy to use for both parent and chgild and I think will enhance the life of any child who has difficulties with communication.

Tom Taps Speaks can be downloaded from the iTunes store here with the one board feature being free and the Customize Feature costing $4.99

The Tom Taps Speaks website can be found here

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