Talk to Play

How to set it up

A child's own talker drives the game. In Bubbles, the talker says more and bubbles float up. In Race Car, go drives the car and stop stops it. All done ends either game calmly. Tapping always works too.

What you need

• The child's talker (their AAC app, such as TouchChat or Proloquo2Go), used as normal, full screen.
• A second device for the game: an iPad, laptop or phone, with Safari or Chrome.

Set up (about a minute)

1. On the game device, open zakkofalltrades.com/talk-to-play.
2. Stand it next to the talker, about a foot apart, with the talker's speaker facing it. Keep the talker at its normal speaking volume.
3. Choose Bubbles or Race Car, tap Start with listening, then Allow when asked about the microphone.
4. Teach it the talker's voice. The game asks you to press each of its words on the talker three times (Bubbles: MORE; Race Car: GO, then STOP), then ALL then DONE three times (the way the child usually does it), then the message bar once so it says "all done" in one go (skip that if there is no message bar). A circle fills in for each press it catches. If a press sounds different from the others, it simply asks for one more.
5. Try it: press each word once more; each one lights up when the game hears it. Then tap Start playing.
6. The first time only, it also gets the listening ready (about 40 MB) while you do the setup. When the top corner says Listening, it is ready.

Do the setup each time you open the game, with the talker where it will sit during play and the room fairly quiet. Different talkers, voices and speaking speeds all work, because the game learns whichever one is in front of it.

Playing Bubbles

• The talker says more: a burst of bubbles. Tap a bubble to pop it.
• The talker says all done: the bubbles drift away and "All done!" shows. More starts them again.

Playing Race Car

• The talker says go: the car drives. Another go keeps it going.
• The talker says stop: the car stops. If nobody says stop, the car stops by itself after about 8 seconds, so a child who only has GO still sees go and stop.
• The talker says all done: the car parks and "All done!" shows. Go drives again.

In both games

• The big word buttons do exactly the same when tapped, by you or the child.
• There are no scores, no wrong answers, and nothing to lose.

The adult panel (the ⚙ button)

• Listening on/off. Switch it off while you talk a lot. Tapping still works.
• What I heard. Every word the game counted or ignored, and why. It is shown on this screen only and never saved.
• How easily each word counts. Choose Easier if it misses the talker, or Harder if it reacts to something that wasn't the talker.
• Redo the talker setup if you move the devices, change the talker's voice or speed, or it starts missing words.
• Choose another game goes back to the start. The new game has its own words, so it does its own short setup.
• Volume, and Calm motion (bubbles fade in place instead of floating).

Good to know

• Nobody touches the game device much, so it may lock itself. For the session, turn Auto-Lock off: Settings › Display & Brightness › Auto-Lock › Never.
• Tapped "Don't Allow" by mistake? In Safari tap aA › Website Settings › Microphone › Allow, then reload the page.
• Only the talker's voice counts. Saying "more" or "go" yourself does nothing; modeling on the child's talker counts, because it is the talker speaking.
• If the room is loud (music, a busy waiting room), the game says so: it may miss the talker then. Turn things down, or tap the words.
• Running the game and the talker side by side on one iPad is not supported yet.

Privacy

Listening happens on the game device itself. Nothing is recorded, saved or sent anywhere. During setup the game learns what the talker sounds like and keeps that only until the page is closed. There are no accounts, no names, no cookies and no tracking.

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