Compatible with iPhone
and iPod Touch
HaloTalk
The first thing you should know is that the developer of HaloTalk has not updated this app in a very long time. So it may not be compatible with the latest iOS on your device. That's a big problem.
In a nutshell, HaloTalk is for teaching opposites, but not exactly. My son's speech therapist clued me in to the fact that these are actually called 'Basic Concepts.'
HaloTalk features a scroll wheel that you move up and down to find the terms with corresponding flashcards you want to teach. When you find the set you want, you touch the small image on the lower left and it goes full screen while simultaneously saying the term that's associated with it. So you get audio and visual with each flashcard. Then, by touching the term in the orange strip toward the bottom, the other flashcard is shown and heard. A double-tap on the card itself returns you to the scroll wheel, or as I like to think of it, the contents of HaloTalk.
What's so special about that? Well, AdastraSoft has employed a unique concept with HaloTalk that's very important for children with autism. As the developer indicates in his description of this app, "In HaloTalk, all pictures are selected in the most direct manner, with minimal unnecessary variations within items in each pair, and require minimal language generalization. For example, 'fast' and 'slow' are represented by objects with different speed blur, not by typical "rabbit" and "turtle" pictures side-by-side."
In other words, to the extent possible, HaloTalk uses the same general image or object to represent a term and its opposite. That isn't always easy to do, but it's important. For a child with autism this idea is paramount. I don't think it can be understated. We don't want our kids thinking a rabbit is called a 'fast' or a turtle is called a 'slow'. See what I'm getting at? This unique concept is what makes HaloTalk such a valuable tool.
In the screen shots you can see that I created my own flashcards for Hot and Cool. Why not Hot and Cold? I'm not really trying to teach a complete opposite here. And in using the images I selected (coals) there isn't really a cold, only a cool. When a coal isn't hot it's at room temperature, but it's far from cold. Think about it; I want to use the same general images. What if I had chosen to use ice? The cold pic would be no problem, but how can I represent hot with ice? It's impossible.
I can edit my own created flashcards anytime, easily. I can also record audio that's played with them. For my Hot and Cool flashcards I recorded my voice saying "Hot" for the first flashcard and then I said, "Cool" for the other. But HaloTalk doesn't allow the editing of the built-in flashcards, for better or for worse.
Some of the built-in flashcards could be better in my opinion, but they still get the job done. Clear and Unclear could be called Clear and Blurry. Coming and Leaving could be called Coming and Going. Deep and Shallow could have better pictures. These things I'm mentioning are minor though, and arguable.
Also, as the developer points out, HaloTalk can be used by non-verbal people in a pinch to express that they're cold, in pain, bored, happy, etc. That's a nice little extra! It's by no means a full communication device but it could come in handy in certain situations.
For what it does and how it does it, I think HaloTalk is an excellent iPhone and iPod Touch app. If you have an autistic child who needs to understand basic concepts HaloTalk is an excellent app!
