Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP. Over 36 years experience in AAC. OMazing Kids AAC and app consulting. Creator of several AAC Feature Matching resources (https://omazingkidsllc.com/omazing-kids-aac-resource-links/). Includes info about unique features to support Gestalt Language Processors
Have you ever considered using AAC on an Apple Watch but weren’t sure about the options or how to set it up? I’ve made it simple.
Check out my brand new resource “Feature Matching Basics & Tips: AAC Apps for the Apple Watch”: https://bit.ly/AppleWatchAAC.
This resource contains a 6 page PDF handout & exclusive access to three unlisted YouTube videos with easy to understand information about :
An overview of things to consider when deciding to use AAC apps on an Apple Watch
How to pair the Apple Watch with a wearable Bluetooth speaker (simple demo video)
How to use the Apple Watch app on a paired iPhone to set up apps on the Apple Watch
How to find info about setting up an Apple Watch for a family member who doesn’t have their own iPhone, tech safety considerations & parental controls
Two recommended watch face options well-suited for AAC users (using one app or using multiple apps)
Apple Watch face “Complications” made simple: What these are on an Apple Watch and how to set them up (simple tutorial video)
Basic info about features of 33 apps and features available for the Apple Watch (8 apps and a feature specifically designed for AAC + 25 AAC-related apps and features that can be used to communicate in a variety of creative ways… including some that allow you to play short video and audio clips. Particularly helpful for Gestalt Language Processors)
✅ Designation of particularly helpful apps as “top picks”
🔎 Designation of AAC apps that are robust with many more features when used on an iPhone or iPad
Exclusive access to an unlisted YouTube video where I demo these “top picks” and show what the robust apps look like on an Apple Watch
9 other apps that I explored and reasons that I ruled those out
Exclusive access to those three unlisted YouTube videos (2:30 min, 3:18 min, 48:27 min – with time stamped chapters to quickly jump to info)
The PDF handout is formatted to be printed or viewed on a PDF reader or in the Apple Books app where you can tap on blue underlined text that links directly to additional or related information.
The 48:27 demo video of the “top picks” and robust AAC apps has time-stamped chapters to help you quickly jump to the info about a particular app.
See my list on AppRaven: AAC and AAC related apps for Apple Watch
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Updated Resource 8/5/24: AAC Apps and Features At-a-Glance (Single Page Handouts):https://bit.ly/AAC-At-a-Glance. This 90 page PDF resource has been updated to add Weave Chat AAC, to reflect new features in apps and to update info about pricing. See the new Table of Contents: https://bit.ly/-TOC-AACAppsandFeaturesAt-a-Glance. Those who have previously purchased it on TPT can download the most current version for no additional cost: https://bit.ly/AAC-At-a-Glance.
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Resource Update: Feature Matching Chart for Visual Scene and Video Visual Scene Display AAC Apps.
I added info about the Android version of Scene and Heard Pro Lifetime and info about the iOS and Android versions of QuickPic AAC + lots of info about new features in several of the other apps & info about my experience with creating and using a “The VoiceKeeper” voice.
Those who have previously purchased it on TPT can download the most current version for no additional cost: https://bit.ly/AACvsd .
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
The Feature Matching Chart for the Top iOS Text Based AAC Apps has been updated on 6/29/24 to reflect new features in these apps. Includes major update in Predictable 7. Those who have previously purchased this resource on TPT can download the newest version for no additional cost: https://bit.ly/TextBasedAACapps. Ko-fi subscribers will be able to access a copy on the pinned resource post: https://ko-fi.com/Post/Links-to-posts-about-most-current-feature-matching-F1F5C9DMD
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Resource Updated: The Feature Matching Chart for the Top 13+ iOS Symbol Based AAC Apps (6/12/24).
It includes information about new features in several apps + info related to the changes in TD Snap becoming a subscription-based app.
The “Unique Features in Symbol-Based AAC Apps to Support Gestalt Language Processors” supplemental handout linked within it has also been updated.
I also updated the Table of Contents in the TPT resource description for those who want more info about the types of things covered: https://bit.ly/TOC-iOSaacSBfmc-06-12-24.
Those who have previously purchased this resource on TPT can download the newest version for no additional cost: https://bit.ly/SymbolBasedAACapps.
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
See my new video for a quick demo of what true “code switching” looks like when speaking the content of the Message Window in Spanish-English bilingual use in Proloquo2Go and TD Snap vs. Spanish-English bilingual use in TouchChat with WordPower and LAMP Words for Life:
There are voices for each language in LAMP Words for Life and in TouchChat with WordPower.
If you are using the English part of the bilingual vocabulary file or an English vocabulary file it uses the English voice.
If you are using the Spanish part of the bilingual vocabulary file or a Spanish vocabulary file it uses the Spanish voice.
What those two apps can’t do is speak part of the Message Window in English and part of the Message Window in Spanish to combine it into one message with true code switching within the utterance.
Proloquo2Go and TD Snap do support this true code switching.
Update 2/21/25:
Weave Chat AAC now supports true multilingual code switching 🎉
This is currently supported on the iOS and Amazon Fire versions. The update for the Android version should be available very soon.
Here it is on my iPad Air 11” (M2) 2024:
5/16/25: PRC-Saltillo announced new bilingual support and code switching in Empower® software for Accent® devices. Starting with update 1.27, Spanish/English options are now available in Unidad, LAMP Words for Life and Essence vocabularies. See their website for details:
Avaz now has Bilingual Vocabulary Packs that support true code switching:
Vietnamese/English (adult male, adult female, boy & girl files are each available for download from their website. They work on both the iOS and Android versions of the app)
Bengali/English (adult male and adult female files are each available for download from website. They work on both the iOS and Android versions of the app)
There are 4 other languages that you can fill out an online form to “express interest”. I filled that out for each of these. After I receive them I can verify how long it takes to receive the files, what the second language is, and that they support true code switching:
Malayalam
Marathi
Tamil
Telugu
Flexspeak supports multilingual use and has an AI translation tool to translate the content of the Message window. When using that you end up having two Message Windows. One with the original language spoken in that voice and a second one in the other language spoken with that voice. The AI translation requires an internet connection. The app does NOT support true code switching within one message.
The NEW way to find languages, set voices & create a bilingual setup in the PRC-Saltillo AAC apps (LAMP Words for Life, TouchChat with WordPower, Dialogue AAC) after the 2.52.0 app update on February 10, 2025, https://bit.ly/LampWFL-TouchChat-languages-voices-bilingualSetUp-2025
Checklist for Creating a Culturally Inclusive AAC System:
Note: The ability to do true code switching when speaking the content of the Message Window is just one of many potential things to consider during the “feature matching” process to find the best fit for an individual user’s needs.
As far as the “design” of vocabulary included, how it is organized, whether or not buttons are placed in the same spot or have the same symbol in two different languages….
I know from watching a webinar from Saltillo several years ago quite a bit of thought went into the exact vocabulary and symbols used in the Spanish vocab files in TouchChat with WordPower (https://youtu.be/_UJpPCqeiVU?si=0qDYKA9RgzG9zfyr)
There are so many differences between all the different types of Spanish. And symbols can carry different meanings in different cultures so different symbols may be used to avoid misunderstandings or offensive content. They spent months gathering input from native speakers to decide which words to use and the exact symbols.
And differences between articles, verb conjugations, etc. that would make it impossible to have vocabulary in exactly the same place in English and Spanish. Even LAMP Words for Life Spanish/English doesn’t have words in *exactly* the same spot in both languages.
I’ve also watched a webinar from Tobii Dynavox about the creation of the bilingual Spanish-English USA Motor Plan pageset in TD Snap (https://tobiidynavox.talentlms.com/learner/courseinfo/id:1226) and then learned how that’s different than the Spanish (Spain) version which has a Motor Plan 40 option. Of course I was intrigued as to why so I asked and got this reply: “They felt Spain needed an extra 40 button layout because Spain uses an extra pronoun and the Home page became very crowded with pronouns at 30 buttons. In Spanish in general they felt it was important to have all the subject pronouns on the home page.”
Here’s info that I received from the CEO of AssistiveWare about the design process of their Spanish-English vocabulary inProloquo2Go: “This blog post might interest you: https://www.assistiveware.com/blog/bilingual-aac. It explains the process we used. Our Spanish vocabulary was designed for both monolingual and bilingual use. The word selection and the grammar system was adapted to Spanish and we build a Castilian and American Spanish variant adjusting for regional differences in core and fringe. It took our whole team a full year going from researching transcripts of children’s language to building the vocabulary and localizing all the fringe. It involved Spanish speaking AAC experts and linguists from our side plus a review by external SLPs and Spanish speakers. We support advanced grammar construction including the creation of compound words such as damelo (give me that) common in Spanish.
… because the languages, their syntax, and grammar are different a good localization cannot have the same word in the exact same place. While there is overlap between core words for different languages the list of core words and their relative frequencies are not identical. Fringe, of course, is also influenced by cultural differences. So if you want to do a good job localizing a vocabulary you cannot keep all words in the same place. We chose to optimize for each language used by itself rather than optimize for bilingual use (but even if we had done the latter a literal translation would not have been an acceptable result). What we did do is keep the folder hierarchy identical across languages to facilitate bilingual use. Also note that because of the differences between languages, syntax, and grammar for speaking people the “pathways” are also not the same for all languages a good AAC localization reflects that too.”
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing the best AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Image ID: Screenshot of the cover image for this resource in my TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) Store. Includes the icon for each app in the Apple App Store, the OMazing Kids logo and logos for TPT and Ko-fi. Date updated: 2/4/24.
Resource Expanded & Updated: The Feature Matching Chart for the Top 13+ iOS Symbol Based AAC Apps (2/4/24).
Weave Chat AAC has been added, it has a deeper dive into specific types of vocabulary within AAC apps, new features in these apps, etc…
Looking for other in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Those who have previously purchased it on TPT can download the most current version for no additional cost: https://bit.ly/AAC-At-a-Glance.
Looking for in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
Resource Update: The Basic Feature Chart for Affordable and Free AAC apps & AAC-Related Apps (iOS, Android Google Play, Amazon Fire, Windows + a few Web-Based options) has been updated (11/11/23).
Looking for in-depth AAC feature matching resources? See this blog post: https://bit.ly/5aacFeatureMatchingResources. That post also includes videos comparing AAC apps on various devices on various platforms.
OMazing Kids AAC Consulting 