Customizing boards on MyTalk for motor-learning skills

I'm a speech-language-pathologist working with AAC. Since iPads are the hot ticket right now, I get the opportunity to work with them often with children, adults, and parents looking for communication supports. MyTalk is one of my favorite apps for people who would like to program and customize their own content. Bick does a great job responding to help questions and has made MAJOR enhancements in his app across the last year. He continues to strive to make MyTalk easy-to-use and effective in supporting communication.

I have designed several boards [like the example Music and the How To (get dressed) boards] for beginning users who are currently choosing from just 1 cell. I prefer to use MyTalk app (rather than others) because I can customize boards with the specific number of cells. I can leave other cells blank and the person can get used to seeing 4 (or 6, 8) cells per board, while still only viewing 1 active cell at at time. I appreciate this feature to help users become accustomed to the changing screens and linked boards before adding additional content. It's also better for motor-learning principles than constantly changing/increasing the number of cells per board as the person's skills grow. This way, you can also use MyTalk with a keyguard (http://www.laseredpics.biz/servlet/the-2578/My-Talk/Detail).

Another way I customize boards for motor-learning principles is that I also always put the back/home button in at stable location (the bottom right spot). It helps the user navigate faster because they don't have to constantly search for the button in a different spot on each page. For more info about motor-learning principles to support communication, see http://www.aacandautism.com/lamp.

Thanks for the work you do!
Carrie

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Carrie L. Leonhart, M.S., CCC-SLP
Augmentative Communication Services Coordinator
Institute on Disabilities
Temple University, College of Education
1755 N 13th St, Student Center, Room 411S
Philadelphia, PA 19122
(215) 204-3032
leonhart@temple.edu

Customizing boards on MyTalk for motor-learning skills

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