Expressive is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) iPad/iPhone app from Smarty Ears. The purpose of an AAC app is to provide a voice for those who don’t have one, in this case people with autism or other disabilities. The basic premise is that someone touches images which represent what they want to say and the iPhone speaks for them. A voice comes out of the iPad’s speaker.

As an entry-level AAC app, Expressive may be what you’re looking for. It’s much easier to setup than the full featured AAC apps like Proloquo2Go or TouchChat. No, Expressive doesn’t do what those other apps do, but it will give your child a voice.

Adding folders and images is easy. You can add your own pictures or you can choose from several images that come included with Expressive by default. When you add a folder you can choose the color for the folder. You have the options of blue, silver, green, orange, purple, red, or yellow. When you create a folder those colors become important for visual learners because they can quickly and easily identify what they’re looking for by the color of the folder.

As far as voices go, you have a few options. All the voices sound natural, which is very important. Nobody wants to sound electronic, unless they want to be humorous. You can record your own voice, of course, which is what you’ll need to do when you use your own pictures. But with all the default images/icons you have the option to choose between a male or female voice. That’s a nice option and it’s wisely hidden in your iPhone’s own settings area. In fact, the option to enter edit mode, in which you can then add and delete images, is also hidden in the iPhone’s own settings area where it ought to be.

You can rearrange your images and the folders when in edit mode by holding the image/folder and moving it around the screen. That’s important because it allows you to place the popular or more frequently used words toward the top. It also lets you move words for things you want to discourage to a certain extent. That’s good!

It’s easy to repeat a phrase you just input without typing/finding the images again. Just touch anywhere up there on the top bar!

Turn your iPad or iPhone sideways if you prefer. Expressive will recognize the new orientation whether it be portrait or landscape mode and the app will realign itself.

If you don’t want the hassles of some of the higher priced and more feature rich AAC apps, then Expressive may be what you’re looking for. I can see it working fine for many autistic children. There’s a lot to say for wonderful simplicity and ease of use.