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 questions? The best way to reach me with any questions is via messaging on the OMazing Kids Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OMazingKidsAAC/. That way AAC related messages don’t get lost among the spam in my e-mail.
I’ve seen several posts recently from pediatric SLPs looking for text-based AAC options for pretty young children. I had several patients like that on my caseload who preferred not to have symbols but the true text-based AAC apps didn’t have the vocabulary or age-appropriate voices that they needed.
This video shows how you can adjust the settings in 4 symbol-based AAC apps to turn them into a text-based set up. There are time stamps so you can jump to each app.
Tip: Just to be safe sure to backup your vocab file / communication book / board set / pageset BEFORE toggling off the symbols. That way you have an easy way to go back if they don’t like it or something glitches.
The pros to doing this are having access to the age-appropriate vocabulary and age-appropriate voices.
All 4 of these apps have a keyboard area and 3 of them can access the iOS keyboard.
**** Important TouchChat Info (4/29/22): I just encountered a glitch with the TouchChat with WordPower app (version 2.36.0). I had toggled off “Show Icons” to demo a text only setup. When I tried to toggle back on the icons that toggle button would not work. I tried a Forced Restart but it didn’t resolve the issue. So I backed up all of my customized Vocab Files, deleted the app, reinstalled the app and imported all of my Vocab Files. I’ll be including this caution when folks ask me about using a text-only setup in this app until the app developer fixes the glitch.
Update about the TouchChat glitch (5/2/22): I heard back from TouchChat Support and they asked for a picture of all of my settings in the app since they hadn’t been able to replicate the issue. I had already deleted and reinstalled the TouchChat with WordPower app on my iPad. So I didn’t have any way to know what the combination of settings were that caused it or if it was an odd glitch that might have happened when I downloaded the most recent app update. Good news though… I just tried the Hide All Icons and now I’m not having the glitch anymore. So deleting and reinstalling the app seems to have resolved the issue.
Update 4/25/22: There’s a setting in GoTalk Now to toggle on “Hide All Images” that creates a text only setup. The process can take awhile on larger Communication Books with numerous pages and larger grid sizes.
Update 11/27/23:
Weave Chat AAC is a totally free AAC app that recently added a setting to toggle off symbols to create a text-based option. They offer their app for iOS, Android and Amazon Fire. For in-depth info about the features see my Feature Matching Chart for Robust Android AAC Apps (Google Play & Amazon Fire): https://bit.ly/RobustAndroidAACappChart.
Of course you could also explore apps specifically designed for text-based AAC. I have several text-based AAC apps installed on my iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Android tablet, Amazon Fire tablet, Windows tablet and Chromebook. See my feature matching resources for details.
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 