App: Speak It! Text To Speech
Developer: John Stefanopoulos
Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Languages: (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish)
Price: $1.99 
Category: AAC Apps
Speak It! Provides Simple Text to Speech
Some kids affected by autism know what they want to say, but just can’t seem to find the words. That’s where the Speak It! Text to Speech application comes in.
The app is very easy to use – just launch the program, and up comes a text box and a list of voice choices. Now, choose a voice, and then type the text into the box above the voice selection. When you’re ready to say something, i.e., speak what you typed, press Speak It!
The developer has provided four voices with the application by default (American Male, American Female, British Male, British Female), but more than 75 are available at the developer’s online store, which you can easily purchase through the app.
Text to Speech Volume is Vital
There are numerous settings on the Speak It! App. The only feature that I feel is helpful for kids with autism, is the Volume. If your iPhone or iPad is not loud enough for your child to hear, just crank it up a notch or two.
Keep the Voice Speed at the default setting. If you change it at all, do it in small increments, otherwise the voices won’t sound very realistic.
Lastly, you can also change the text font size within the settings if your child thinks that the default font size is too small to read.
Speak It! also allows you to copy and paste items such as emails, documents, or web pages into the text area. Once pasted in the app, Speak It! will read the text back to the user.
Further Reading: Autism AAC iPad App: Tap To Talk
[...] loaded the new apps onto the iPhone, and we got started. The first application I had him try was Speak It!, (link goes to review), a text to speech app. Of course, Kevin didn’t know what to do with [...]
I would like to use an iPad2 with the app Speak It (Dutch).
Is it possible to import my own voice in this app.
We are looking for this opportunity for ALS-patients.
In this case could you inform me about the format for this application (wave format, mp3 format, type of text to read for the input etc.)?
Thanks,
Ivo Spaepen
Hi Ivo! You’d probably be best served if you contacted the developer of “Speak It” — Future Apps. Here is their website and contact info: http://www.future-apps.net/Speak_it!/Support.html Good luck!
[...] Assist Talk Assist by Mubaloo is a wonderful iPad-compatible app that is similar to SpeakIt!, and allows your child to type, and then speak something via his iPad or iPhone.Inspired by Les, [...]
[...] review on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you, Teri! If you like this review, you may also like “Speak It! Text to Speech App” Review #af-form-367969412 .af-body [...]
Would like to buy a French voice for speak it for my ipad but can’t access the speak it store through the app. Please help.
Tammy, sent you an email. Hope it helps! — Jack