I am over the moon to share these AAC Communication devices from Joyreal toys with you. Joyreal have gifted me the devices for review and I am honestly so impressed. I love the devices and my kids have really engaged with them. Don’t miss the discount code Joyreal have provided for readers at the end of this post.
I have two boys that have communication differences so I am always looking for supports. These are some of the most accessible and affordable alternative communication devices I have come across.
The two devices I have been using (you can also see pictured above and below):
1. Small Talking Aid: this is designed specifically for young children (from 2+) with communication delay. The buttons are simple visuals that include all the basic communication needs to help support language development.
2. Large Talking Aid: This is a more advanced device. Suitable for older children (5+), teenagers and adults with communication challenges. It includes the visual and text on each button along with more advanced options to enable more comprehensive expression. For example it includes greetings (hello / goodbye) and feelings (bored/ angry / want / like).
Both talking aids are easy to use, they are battery operated and the buttons say the words on the image when pressed and include a bag for storage/transport.
If you are at the early stages of language / communication development especially with young children the small talking aid would be most suitable to start with. As my boys are a bit older they have been able to use both really well. However I am certain a few years ago the larger device would have been too overwhelming for my eldest who finds choices difficult. If you are unsure I would start with the smaller device. Personally the larger device is best for my boys now.
Joyreal AAC Devices
My eldest son (11), is autistic and non speaking. We have used many different alternative communication devices/supports/methods with varying results. When it comes to electronic AAC devices I often find they are either too detailed making them overwhelming for him or they are an app. I find apps really tricky to use on our devices as my son will prefer to be on Roblox or Youtube (he is still an 11 year old after all).
My son has engaged really well with the Joyreal devices. I think the fact that they are designed as toys as well as communication devices makes them really attractive.
It also surprised me how much fun my nieces (9 & 11) had playing with them as toys. The girls have typical communication so would not need these as AAC, they simply saw them as a fun toy. They enjoyed using them to interact with the boys but really loved just playing. They were actually fighting over who’s turn it was!
My youngest son is now 9 and whilst he has speech it is mostly echolalic, his functional communication is really improving but he too really enjoyed using the communication devices. The devices focus on the key words we use for communication and both boys have been using them to communicate with me.
The boys favourite words
My youngest has been using it mostly to tell me he wants ‘music’ or that he wants to stay at ‘home’ which has been great for him to be able to clearly express what he wants when he wants it.
The pre-teen hormones are kicking in so my eldest has found the ‘I want time alone’ button particularly useful. I really like how the words used on the devices reflect what the kids actually want to say. They include things like ‘Help’ and ‘Hello’ that are being used a lot.
It has also been really useful while my son is playing LEGO so he can use the device to let me know he is stuck and needs help. He hasn’t got the hang of coming to get me yet but I can hear the ‘help’ clearly coming from the device so can respond straight away.
On the larger of the two devices you can also select to use either a male or female voice. It was good to be able to give my son the choice of which voice he wanted to use and he gave me a huge smile when selecting the male voice.
Record your own words
In addition to the pre-set words there are additional programmable buttons that you can record words or phrases to that are unique to the individual user. I can add frequent words that we use like ‘More’ and ‘Finished’. I also added ‘I want to play LEGO for my eldest’. For my youngest we can add his phrase of the month (other parents with echolalic kids will get this). His current phrase is ‘there’s no music today’, he loved using that button and gave some recording a try himself. I can see this being something we can use really positively with the boys recording their voices.
The recording buttons are really well designed, they need to be pressed for a few seconds before you can record so needs to be your intention. It is really simple to do and the devices both came with very clear instructions that were easy to follow.
These Joyreal AAC devices for autism work really well. They are robust, they have been dropped a few times by my kids already, easy to handle and use. I honestly would really recommend them to everyone with young kids but definitely for anyone who has children with communication needs. The best bit is they are affordable making them more accessible. Personally I prefer the Advanced AAC Communication Tool for Speech Therapy pictured above but the kids all liked them both and have been using both of them.
I have been so impressed with them, I think they will be really helpful for so many kids. They would also work really well in classroom settings for kids to use when asking for the toilet/drink etc or sharing how they feel.
Where to purchase & discount code
You can find the Joyreal communication devices here:
Simple AAC Devices for autism – the smaller / thinner device
Advanced AAC Communication Tool for Speech Therapy – rectangle device
There are lots of great items on the Joyreal toys site including their Montessori Busy board. Joyreal have also very kindly provided readers of the Autism Page with a 30% discount, if you want to use this discount just enter the code below when in your basket on the Joyreal toys site.
Discount code= Joyreal30
I would love to hear what you think and if you have used the devices, you can use the comments below.
