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Proloquo2go: Augmentative And Alternative Communication

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Proloquo2Go is an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) iTunes application. It has been devised to assist those persons experiencing challenges with verbal communication. It can be accessed by both adults and children with the visual and motor skill capabilities to operate an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. It has been designed by the company AssistiveWare; innovators of assistive technology software for iOS and Mac OS X. It costs AU$ 399.99. It offers a 50% discount when 20 or more copies are purchased via Apple's App Store Volume Purchase Program for Education. To enhance the capabilities the application provides, in-app purchases are available. One such feature is Gateway’s New Child Functional Vocabulary, whose design specifically …show more content…

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) encompasses those forms of communication excluding oral speech which enable an individual to express themselves (Bondy & Frost, 1994). It replicates non-functional speech for those individuals with verbal or language difficulties through augmentative aides (Light & Drager, 2007). Recent technological advances have resulted in the availability of electronic devices which can convert text and picture and communication boards, to generate voice output. As a consequence, individuals with communication challenges accessing alternative means with which to express themselves, and in effect improve their social interaction, academic achievements, whilst gaining increased self-determination (Light & Drager, 2007). The rationale behind the Proloquo2go application is to promote flexible and accessible communication. Through the incorporation of the Picture Communication System (PCS) symbols, the application allows the user, by tapping the displayed symbols or using the word prediction on-screen keyboard, to convert text and approximately 14,000 SymbolStix symbols to speech. Essentially a Speech Generating device (SGD), it replaces the frequently cumbersome PCS …show more content…

In the study, by van der Meer et al. (2011), success was reported for two out of the three participants with developmental disabilities making requests for snacks and toys with the use of Proloquo2Go on an iPod Touch1 Similar results in which participants accessed the application to make requests for preferred stimuli were reported by Achmadi et al. (2012); Kagohara, et al. (2010) and van der Meer et al. (2012) while Kagohara et al. (2012) reported participants’ successfully making requests for preferred stimuli and identifying educationally relevant

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