AAC/TTS stuff

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Does anyone use Proloquo2go or iSpeak? I found a way to acquire an old iPod Touch (my brother-in-laws ol one). iSpeak is only $1.99, and I'm wondering if it will get me by until I can afford (or the Waiver wil pay for) Proloquo2go. What I'm wonder is this: How many words can you type on both before you have to delete and start again? Can I type out a few sentences at a time?

I do not use TTS, though I would prefer it sometimes.

I use proloquo2go.

It depends on what you want to use it for. I don't know all the features of iSpeak. But proloquo2go has the following features that are really useful to me:

Pronunciation exceptions. You can tell it how to pronounce different words that it normally mispronounces, including using a specific phonetic alphabet if need be.

Stored words, phrases, etc. You can make your own screens full of buttons you can press for common words, phrases, sentences, etc. I've even stored speeches in them (broken down into parts).

Really good voices, and a choice of a lot of them for many different languages.

A huge library of symbols (that might be a lot of the reason for the high cost of the app, since I know those symbols don't normally come cheap) you can use on the buttons.

You can also use your own photos on the buttons.

And a bunch of other stuff. You should take a look at their site and go through the manual and see if you want those things or not.

If all you want is text to speech, you should do a search in the app store for Neospeech. That's a company that makes several TTS programs. Very simple programs, one voice each, with names like NeoKate, etc. They're either extremely cheap or free, can't remember which.

Proloquo2go has the kind of functionality that many AAC devices come with. Because they bill to insurance and prefer to mark up their products to extraordinary lengths (as with most so-called "medical" equipment), the other AAC devices with similar functionality often run $5000 or more. I have a device that is similar that cost over $8000 (billed to insurance). But I use my iTouch more than I use my super-expensive communication device, for a large number of reasons. (I got my iTouch soon after a hospitalization in which many dangerous things happened that I was sometimes unable to talk about or object to, because I couldn't usually sit in a position where I could use my regular communication device. I was lying on my side much of the time and you can't use a large communication device easily from that position. I can very usually use an iTouch from that position though, hence why I bought one. I'm just lucky I had my stimulus package money still.)

So Proloquo2go may seem expensive, and may often be too expensive even for me (without the stimulus package I would have needed help to buy it, and that was before the price went up), but it's dirt cheap considering what it does and how well it does it. So if you're looking for something with a whole lot of features, that's often the cheapest you can get it at the moment.

Someone on this forum is working on developing an AAC device that is supposed to be even cheaper yet have a lot of important features. I am eager to see and possibly test it whenever it comes out. (Especially because as it was described, it's supposed to be usable even by people with limited mobility, and I have a movement disorder that often makes it hard to do standard typing. Which is one drawback of the iTouch, it doesn't take switch input for instance.)

Thanks for the info, anbuend. How many words can be typed into the screen before you have to delete and start over though?

I've just had a major melt down and will be left nonverbal for... well, how long remains to be seen... but I've only got my laptop and its crappy battery to get me by. No iPod Touch until August when my sister comes. I'm screwed.