Many families adopt the aac applications LAMP Words for Life and Speak For Yourself in order for their children and clients to connect better. Many persons with autism use one of these applications as their primary communication instrument. It might be difficult to choose between LAMP Words for Life and Speak For Yourself. Pricing, motor planning features, and device compatibility are all different (like android tablets vs iPads). Many families prefer LAMP Words for Life because of its extensive customizability, while others prefer Speak For Yourself because they value including members of their care team in the language learning process. Choosing the right app to use as a communication tool might be difficult. Continue reading to learn how both applications compare in terms of vocabulary levels, parent onboarding, customer support, and more.
LAMP Words for Life |
Speak For Yourself |
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| Good for Early Communication |
LAMP Word for Life is great if you want your user to only have to tap ONE time on the screen, but for younger users, the small symbol size and overwhelming vocabulary makes it difficult to start slow.
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Speak For Yourself is extremely overwhelming for early communicators. The screen is complex and the symbols are often confusing.
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| Affordable Pricing |
The app is $299.99 and only available on iPad. No trial version. You must go through a third party source for hardware, adding to the cost.
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Speak For Yourself is $299, with no free trial.
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| Easy to Get Started |
Very little guidance offered to new users. Support is only offered if a Support Plan is purchased.
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Out of the box, Speak For Yourself comes with an overwhelming learning process for care givers even before they can help their child or AAC user learn it for themselves.
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| Behavior Supports |
No behavior support included.
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No behavior centered features are built into the Speak For Yourself app.
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| Multiple Device Options |
The app is ONLY available on iPad (not even iPhones). Expensive dedicated devices can be bought through other companies.
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Speak For Yourself is only offered on iOS devices as a downloadable app.
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| Easy Parent Modeling |
WordFinder™ gives users and caregivers the option of both viewing and touching the button sequence to practice the movement for motor planning.
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Parents can search for a word on the device to model the location and picture of the word
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| Incentives to Practice |
While there are no supporting features like token boards to incentivize practice, LAMP Words for Life does allow users to use the app during FaceTime calls and to share messages to social media. This does make practicing AAC a bit more fun!
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No incentives to learn the Speak For Yourself software are included.
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| Natural Voices and Language Availability |
Offered in Spanish, English, and Hebrew. 35+ voice options are available.
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While Speak For Yourself is offered in English, it is powered by CereProc's speech system that offers changes in pitch, speed, etc. for customization.
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| Customer Support |
Requires customers to purchase tier 1 or tier 2 support plans to be helped in a reasonable time frame.
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Customer support is offered by phone or email.
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| Motor Planning |
Yes. Lamp Words for Life aac app is heavily focused on language acquisition through motor planning and muscle memory patterns. Words do not move on the screen, and there is no scrolling.
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This app teaches language solely through motor planning. However, while Speak For Yourself does not allow the location of words to change and the size of the screen to shift, the buttons are programmed in a very small size, making the screen overwhelming.
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| Simplicity of the Screen |
LAMP Words for Life has one the most complex and overwhelming screens because users are not able to scroll or tap into folders. All words are laid out on the home screen. Once programmed, their placement will not change.
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The size of the buttons and complexity of the screen is a challenge for most users, and it cannot be changed.
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| Safety and 9-1-1 Calling features |
Little functionality to help kids out of stressful situation. Communication via the talker is its only function.
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Speak For Yourself is an app offering one function, so 9-1-1 calling is impossible on a dedicated device.
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| Affordable Dedicated Device Option |
All dedicated devices must be bought outside of the company and mostly thousands of dollars.
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Speak For Yourself does not offer a dedicated device of their own. It is app-only.
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| Communication With Spelling |
Offers "spell mode" so users can type out words.
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There is a keyboard functionality built in to Speak For Yourself to allow users to communicate any fringe words not already included.
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| Reminders to Practice |
There are no integrated reminders to practice language and communication via the Words For Life app.
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No reminder features are included.
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| Image and Symbol Quality |
Uses Minspeak symbols that don't often actually match the word it is supposed to represent. This is confusing for most users. The symbols also represent multiple words.
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Speak For Yourself uses 11,000 Smarty symbols, but the symbols are often used in confusing ways, similar to Minspeak symbols that don't actually mean the word they represent.
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| Fun Games to Build Skills |
LAMP Words for Life does not include any external or accompanying games that help AAC users improve their finger dexterity.
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Speak For Yourself does not have any skill-based games included.
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| Levels of Vocabulary |
Has 3 levels of vocabularies: 1-hit, transtion, and full.
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While words can be hidden through an "open and close" feature, there are no easy step-by-step levels of vocabulary to make things simple at the beginning and leave room for growth over time.
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| Care Team Access |
LAMP Words for Life is interaction is limited to either the dedicated device or the iOS iPad that it was purchased on.
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There is not a lot of functionality for inviting care team members like teachers into the process.
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Compare Goally to all other apps to discover why parents find it the easiest to use and most effective for teaching language.
Goally's language learning apps are just $12 a month. If it does not work for your family, you can cancel at any time.
