TapToTalk App

 As challenging as parenting can be, imagine what it would be like when your child can’t tell you what he wants or how he feels. Apps like TapToTalk are helping kids with disabilities such as autism find their voice. Unfortunately, many parents don’t need to imagine the struggle of trying to figure out what their kids want. The latest research shows that 1 in 88 children are identified with an autism spectrum disorder and 1 in 6 children in the U.S. had a developmental disability in 2006-2008, ranging from speech and language impairments to intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism.  The good news is modern technology is making a difference! Fay Bareham of Houston’s 11-year-old son is autistic and non-verbal. Her family discovered TapToTalk this past summer, and it has made all the difference for them.

 An app that allows non- or partially-verbal kids to explicitly tell parents, siblings and teachers what they’re thinking about and need, TapToTalk runs on virtually all popular hand-held devices including smartphones, tablets, computers and more. Fay’s son had many devices over the years, but they were heavy and would cause him to feel "different" from the other kids. Most of the devices had core vocabularies loaded on them and her son didn't use most of the icons, so he found them to be too time consuming to search through in order to find the things he wanted to say. With TapToTalk, it’s easy for her son to find what he’s trying to say. The app can go on something as small as an iPod touch, which looks like everyone else's phones, including his Dad's phone clipped on his belt – this instantly helped him feel “cool.” TapToTalk allows Fay’s son to use his ‘voice’ to speak to anyone: Friend, family or even the folks at the corner store. He had what a friend called "a Helen Keller moment" when he realized that TapToTalk was actually speaking for him and he was able to communicate using it. You can download the app for virtually any device at http://taptotalk.com/.

I am so happy with all the advances that enable children to communicate, especially apps like TapToTalk. Sam, my youngest, was speech delayed and I wish we had something like this app when we needed it. He was always so frustrated and I think this would have made a world of difference for him. Hopefully other parents will be able to eliminate some of those frustrations. You can ustomize it and use it on phones and tablets. You can even use it on your Kindle Fire/Nook, PC, and Nintendo! Check it out!

Disclosure: I was compensated to share this information. Any opinions expressed are mine and not influenced in any way.