SLP app Review: Pic Collage

Pic Collage is a great app for speech pathologists looking to make a simple communication board for a client.  This would be appropriate for children or adults as well.  This is a free picture collage app that can be very helpful in making a quick picture board for a non-verbal client.

There are several different options for backgrounds, colors and text.  Additionally, any pictures in the photo gallery can be used on the boards.  This is a tool that families could easily implement as well to support communication quickly, such as when they are out of the house and may want to provide a choice board in a new place that may not be programmed in an AAC device.  

Below is an example of a board that I made for a non-verbal 4 year old child for his favorite items.  The app is quick enough to operate that I made this in a session as a test to see if my client would respond to it and he loved choosing his favorite, music, on the new board.  

Other therapy uses for this app are to make boards for basic concepts, opposites, or matching.  You can easily save it and then have the clients use skitch to edit/draw on them.  There are many great uses for this app in addition to the obvious AAC potential.

This app is certainly not the best AAC option available, but it is free, fast and very user friendly, which is a big plus for many of the families who are a little less tech savvy and has lots of other possible uses for creative speech-language pathologists out there.  

Speechie apps for Androids Review: Alexicom AAC for Android

I was inspired by fellow SLP to do some research into some of the Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) apps that are available on Android.  After looking at several of them I found a free app: Alexicom AAC for Android.  This is an interesting app for several reasons.  It comes with 33 pre-loaded boards ranging from an 8 button board for a child to much more complex board (as the one below) for independent for adults or teens.  It also allows you to create custom boards and change the number of columns, rows and the size of pictures on the board which is a big plus.  You can upload your own pictures, or go into the picture files that come with it (by going into the Alexicom picture files on your device rather than using the gallery).  This seems like is has some great potential for a very inexpensive AAC device the speech therapist or parents are able to put in some time for developing the right boards for the client.

Unfortunately, the pages that are linked are only indicated by the tiny blue triangle that you may notice in at the bottom right of some buttons, however, it is still one of the better options that is available at the present time.

Please let me know if you find that this has been useful for any of your clients.  If it works well we could start a resource for pre-made boards as it appears that they can be exported so that other SLPs aren't reinventing the wheel each time.