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Heather H.
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Strengths |
SuperSpeak provides a great app that allows users to input their own pictures or images and record their own sound to provide very personalized picture communication. It’s easy to add images and sounds. The child lock is tricky enough to prevent kids from messing up the settings, but not so hard as to confound parents. It’s easy to change the number of rows (from one to three) and the picture size. The tutorial to start the app was wonderful.
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| Suggestions |
I don’t really understand the badges. They’re not accessible for the child user, and don’t seem very motivating for parents. I wish the app started with some basic pictures included. It was a little overwhelming to set it up from scratch just to review, and it would be even more so for a parent or professional trying to get it set up quickly for a child. I also couldn't figure out how to access the great tutorial after the initial play. SuperSpeak also really focuses on single word vocabulary, and doesn't have the same ability as more full-featured AAC apps to grow with the child.
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| General opinion |
SuperSpeak is a great app for kids who need some help to augment communication for a shorter period of time. Because of the $10 a month subscription and limited ability to combine sentences, it’s not the best choice for kids who may need a long-term app, since it limits the ability to really expand communication. I wish there was a lower cost associated with the app, because it would be an excellent choice for speech-language pathologists who need some visual/auditory support for all students within therapy sessions.
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Rachel J.
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| Strengths |
SuperSpeak allows for the use of real photos to represent items on the communication device. All it takes is giving permission once for your iDevice in order to access photos, and your child will be able to see and correlate photos of Grandma Sue and Uncle Mike when talking to or about these individuals. The app interface is very responsive to touch, which allows users of all physical abilities the chance to access the app. From an adult standpoint, a tutorial walks the programmer through the first addition of an image to ensure success, which is helpful especially for parents or teachers, or anyone who may not be confident around an AAC device. I also like the idea of a free trial run of the app, for therapists/parents to try the app before committing to a purchase. Not all communication modes are appropriate for all users and this allows for an attempt at success without the cost attached. Additionally, the communication board is accessible via log-in so it can be used on a variety of iDevices.. |
| Suggestions |
SuperSpeak is appropriate for very early communicators. It only allows for a small number of pictures to be displayed at one time, which limits what a child can say at any given time. Each picture requires a two-step touch sequence to activate—one to select the picture and one to say the word. Early users who need a limited choice of vocabulary may or may not be able to cognitively complete a 2-step sequence. While I mentioned that I enjoy the real photo use (and I do!), it can become tedious to have to take a picture of every object a child may want to talk about. Given a very chatty child (or a large variety of activities), this can take up a lot of photo space. SuperSpeak does not allow much language growth to happen with a child. Few of us walk around in life speaking in single nouns or verbs—we use sentences, or combine words. Even when pressing pictures consecutively, voice output becomes choppy and artificial sounding, which adds to the limited amount of time a child can use this app before they’re ready to move on to higher language skills. |
| General opinion |
As I’ve said with every AAC app I’ve reviewed for the site, it’s almost impossible to given an app of this nature a star rating. What would be 5-stars appropriate for one child may be 0-stars appropriate for the next. Consultation with a licensed speech-language pathologist is strongly recommended before establishing a communication program for a child. SuperSpeak has some easy to use, customizable features that allow everyone to help access and program a child’s device, but again, AAC is not a one-size-fits-all event. |
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Rachel H.
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| Strengths |
The app is easy to customize and has clear and useful instructions for getting started. I really liked the various tasks and tips in the admin section to help get new users comfortable with the app and help explain how to use it in simple, easy to follow daily steps. Adults can create categories to help organize photos. |
| Suggestions |
While it is easy to upload and create new photos, it would be nice if there were some defaults pictures available to choose from. It took a bit of time to add in photos of everyday objects such as milk, door, television, iPad, and bathroom. Even if there was the availability of suggested categories and sample pictures, it could really help a parent that is new to communication apps and overwhelmed by what to do. |
| General opinion |
SuperSpeak’s goal is to help with communication. Parents or therapists can load their own photos as well as record an audio labels to help children who have difficulty speaking to communicate with the world around them. The app is free to use for the first two weeks, and then users can purchase a subscription to continue. |
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 Cynthia
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| Strengths |
SuperSpeak shines in simplicity and ease-of-use. The layout is easy to read, navigate and execute in function. The app also contains some very helpful learning material for showing new users how to introduce AAC such as making sure that a chosen object in the app is produced in real life.
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| Suggestions |
SuperSpeak is easy to set up and get started however, it can be time consuming. There are no pre-loaded photos or symbols which may be a bonus for users that only want to use personal photos, but as someone who has used many, many AAC apps with my son, I found it more work than I wanted. After a two week free trial of the app, users are given a choice of subscription offers starting at three months billed in a single payment of $29.99. I found the voice recordings to be sub-par and loading time was slow as well. There are other apps on the market that do the same as this one and provide more functionality like pre-loaded pictures or symbols with the ability to customize and more thorough AAC training. My suggestions for making SuperSpeak better are to see better recording quality, stock photos included for some of us that prefer choosing from a professional pool of choices, faster loading time and a reduction or change in the subscription choices.
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| General opinion |
Overall, I didn't fall in love with SuperSpeak, but I think it has a lot of potential once a few changes have been made.
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Kelli
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| Strengths |
I liked the fairly clean, simple interface. I liked the ability to customize for items that each child would be familiar with and/or need practice on. I like the idea of being web-based to allow for participation of long-distance family or teachers (but more on that below.) |
| Suggestions |
While the premise of being web-based sounds like a good idea, I was unable to log on at all if I didn’t have internet access. From an individual standpoint $10 a month is a steep price, especially when the market is flooded with comparable or superior apps. Perhaps it would be more feasible for a speech professional that would be using it for multiple children, but for families it might be too high for most pocketbooks. (Note: At least the subscription is not an automatically renewing one, so if someone wanted to give it a try they won’t automatically be charged if they forget to stop it.) |
| General opinion |
Superspeak is billed as a communications tool for children that are struggling with verbal or non-verbal conditions. It’s customizable for each child by adding pictures from each child’s environments and attaching sound to each one, whether it is the child’s voice or that of a teacher or parent. The idea is to build a platform for each child to be able to communicate with those around them using their own pictures and words, and earn little rewards along the way. Parents or teachers can set up multiple users to track classes or siblings. This subscription basis comes with a free two week trial, and then costs $10 a month.
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