Posts Tagged ‘aeir talk’

One of the hardest parts about working with clients with developmental disabilities is the communication barriers. It can be incredibly difficult to communicate with clients, even more so if they’re non-verbal.

For instance, I work with a client that is non-verbal and only knows a limited amount of sign language. He’s a bright kid and most of the time he knows what he wants to be spending his time doing. Granted he can’t always be doing that particular activity, but more often than not we’re struggling to figure out what he wants at all.

He will point and moan and become increasingly agitated because we don’t understand his needs. He has a communication book full of regularly used items or activities that he sometimes uses to communicate but it’s big and clunky and difficult to carry around and have on hand at all times.

A lot of care providers and therapists/analysts are finding that iPads and other mobile devices might be the answer to this problem of communication. New apps are constantly being developed to help educate or ease communication between kids and parents/care providers.

One such app that’s been garnering a lot of attention recently is Aeir Talk. Joseph Hill was a financial planner with two kids on the autism spectrum and after seeing some of the expensive tools speech pathologists were using to help encourage communication decided that he could build something better and cheaper. It took him months and there were unforeseen problems and delays but Joe kept hustling and the Aeir Talk app was finally released late December 2011.

There are a lot of apps out there that help simplify communication like Aeir Talk, and I don’t mean to take anything away from any of them, but Aeir Talk is so simple and easy to use that it stands out in the crowd.

Unfortunately Aeir Talk is currently only available on iPad, but I spoke with them on twitter a few days ago and they said they already have plans to release iPhone and Android apps in the future. This is great, especially if they can maintain the simplicity of the iPad app for phone version which will be on smaller screens.

Aeir Talk is only $20 and can be purchased at the iTunes store. Visit the Aeir Talk main website, blog or check them out on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Who’s using Aeir Talk and what do you think of the app? What other education and communication apps do you like for iPad, iPhone, or Android devices?