Getting an app on an iPod, but same issue. The school did not know how to use it and he eventually stopped using it. I was the only one trying so after awhile I gave up because he did not have he Language in his mind beyond neeeds and wants.

I would say the younger the better, but make it something he wants to use. Start with him picking out different foods for groceries or a restaurant. I had my son use one at age 9. Unfortunately the school was unfarmiliar with his device and it was used less, we ended up later gett

@Protologo - how old was your son when you introduced the device?

It depends on the device. My sons had an iPad with prolotogo on it for years now and never took to it. Just recently he had an evaluation and he was using the wrong device for him. I guess it's individual. So we found out we have to find an extra 4,000 somewhere... that should be easy:)

My daughter is nonverbal and is 11, she started using a Nova Chat device at about 8 and has responded well to it since. It is hard to determine what age you should start because the children are all different but I will say using it yourself with your child is different than a speech therapist doing it. My daughter doesn't like using it at home as much as using at school with her teachers. She can communicate at home with the few words she does have and sign language. She also knows where everything is and will either just go get it and say help or she will bring us to it. Now at school she will use the tablet without even being prompted.

Just as a side note, these kinds of devices are the ones insurance approved because they basically just do speech. They don't often cover IPads because they don't want to pay for something that you are going to play music, games and videos on. They base payment on medical necessity and those are not medically necessary but speech is.