Technology Helping Expression

Many parents and teachers of children with special needs wonder if using technology to communicate is a good idea, or if it will stifle and get in the way of oral speech production. Application development has definitely come a long way in this area of technology. As children progress through typical stages of language development, they are usually quick to find oral speech to be the easiest and fastest way to get a message across. But for some children with a variety of speech, cognitive or physical impairments, verbal speech is not an effective way to communicate. It's important to remember that we communicate in many different ways. We use facial expressions, gestures and body language, writing and oral speech, to name a few. If verbal speech is impeded, assistive technology can help them discover the joys of expressing themselves. One of the best devices are the tablets where children can use apps that have pictures and sounds to get across whatever it is that they want to say. What do you think about the help of technology when there are impairments in either speech or other forms of expression?