Hearty SPIN supports International AAC Awareness Month

Oct. 19, 2012 - PRLog -- Individuals with speech or language problems rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to express their needs and thoughts. For many nonverbal individuals, the use of AAC may increase their social interaction, feelings of self-worth and enable them to learn other skills and knowledge more effectively.

With the recent availability of AAC apps on iPad ( http://heartyspin.com/autism-apps/ ), electronic AAC system is now much more affordable and accessible to many nonverbal individuals worldwide. There are quite a few good AAC apps available on App Store, meeting the diverse needs people with speech difficulties. One AAC app that works wonderfully for one individual may not suit the needs of another individual. For example, many speech impaired individuals with autism have also challenging learning difficulties, for them, a full-featured AAC app that has too many features might be too complicated for them to master.

Parents would need to evaluate suitability of the AAC app according to their child's needs and abilities. Experienced teachers and speech language pathologists can help to recommend suitable AAC apps and also have in-place a structured program to teach the child and integrate the use of the AAC app both in school and at home.  

Picture AAC, developed by Hearty SPIN, is an iOS app that is used by teachers, speech language pathologists and parents with speech impaired/delayed children in 30+ countries worldwide. One key differentiation of Picture AAC is that it has been carefully designed to be simple enough even for children with challenging learning difficulties to master, and is suitable for children with autism.

"Individuals with autism are visual learners in an auditory world. With the iPad and Picture AAC app, they can see, read, hear and touch the information, and this enables us to teach them how to communicate more effectively than standard intervention tools." said Phoebe Tucker, Director of Montano Assistive Technology Center ( http://www.ucpasouthernct.com/UCP18~1/montanocenter.html ).

In support of International AAC Awareness month, Hearty SPIN is offering a promotional discount on its Picture AAC app ( https://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/id488645173?mt=8&part... ) , available on Apple App Store worldwide.