A vocabulary app that turns symbols into speech, Sono Flex allows nonverbal persons to access and use language. Flexibility is key when using symbol-to-speech technology, and Sono Flex provides this critical component by allowing symbols to be individually or situationally tailored. The app comes with over 50 pre-made context packages for various situations and themes. Sono Flex is useful for speech and language pathologists, special education educators, family, and caregivers.

Website: http://tobiisonoflex.com/

What Users Love About the App

“I’m an Autistic person who uses this app when under extreme stress. More importantly, I introduced the lite version to my cousin, who is nonspeaking, Autistic, and has intellectual disability, some months ago, and went ahead and purchased the full version because it’s that great. It’s very intuitive for both of us and through it, he has expressed things he’s never before been able to.”

“Sono flex is well organized and has many great boards for different themes. The quick phrase feature is very handy. It can be easily programmed with additional buttons and has features to choose the part of speech to be added into the Fitzgerald keyboard arrangement.”

“I am the mom of a child with high functioning autism. My son suffers from anxiety, and often will not or cannot tell us what is wrong. This is helping us figure out what is wrong. Sono Flex has a spot on our front page because it is excellent.”

“It has a handy manual which made it easy for me to program too, which is very important to me. The color coding is fantastic, the voices are easy to understand! The history tab is wonderful! SonoFlex is so easy to use, and the ability to change the expressions to use familiar pictures is amazing.”

“I am the mother of a special needs 3 year old with neurofibromatosis, apraxia of speech and suspected aspberger’s. He is mostly non-verbal due. However, after using SonoFlex Lite for a little while, we noticed that he was extremely interested in the app.”

What Users Dislike About the App

“The voice! The choices are awful…artificial and robotic. The child choices are especially awkward, which surprises me knowing a majority of this app’s users are children.”

“There is no way to change the positioning of the context buttons. This is not functional for individuals with limited fine motor control who need frequently used buttons near the bottom or sides.”

“This app could move to being great if it had the option of speaking as each button is pressed. In the current version, one puts in a phrase by pressing any number of buttons but it does not speak each word while it is entered.”

“The student I am using this app with has already accidentally deleted things and he is not learning as quickly as he could because he can’t hear what he has selected until he selects the message window.”

“I would like to be able to turn off the long press to edit, but don’t see a way to do this. Some users will accidentally press too long and will go to edit mode. Would love to be able to have a scanning feature as well.”