As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I know this has nothing to do with vacationing but I was not sure where to post this. Has anyone ever used Proloquo2go or iPrompts or any other communication app? How do they compare to one another? I have a 4 year old daughter who is nonverbal. Right now she is using PECs but I would like to eventually move to an app.
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I have a lot of experience with Proloquo2Go, but I only know what I have read about iPrompts.
They are 2 very different programs with very different functions. iPrompts appears to be mostly a digital version of a schedule board and can be used to give a choice between 2 things. From what I have read, it appears to maybe not have voice output, so when you touch a button, it does not talk. It also doesn't look like it can grow with the user- such as in the area for giving choices, you can only give 2 choices.
Proloquo2Go is a very complete communication device. It can be simplified for a young child or someone who is just starting out. As their skills grow or needs change, the user vocabulary can be changed to meet the needs. The size and number of buttons can be changed and you can use the built in icons or your own pictures.
If you want to get a hands on look, Proloquo2Go is loaded onto iPads in all Apple stores.
Forgot to add thus last night.
You might also want to look at iCommunicate by a company called Grembe.
It's not as full featured a communication app as Proloquo2Go, but it has some nice visual schedule making features that would still be useful if your child outgrows the communication system. It also uses the same SymbolStix icon set that Proloquo2Go uses, so if you switch apps later on, that's one less thing to get accustomed to.
They have some videos of how it works on their website.
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Thanks so much for the info! I had not heard of iCommunicate but I will look into that one also. I like to get as much info as possible so that I do not purchase something that is not going to work. Or at least I try not to purchase the wrong thing.
We just got DS (3.75) an iPad and Proloquo2go 2 weeks ago. I was horrible at implementing PECS, we've tried several times and each time it was just "ugh" and to tell the truth, I've been a little sluggish in Proloquo2go as well....BUT....
DS has had this iPad for 2 weeks and his words and approximations have easily tripled. The dam is breaking. We still have a LOOOOOONG way to go, but the apps and games have been the best therapy so far, we it!!!
We just got DS (3.75) an iPad and Proloquo2go 2 weeks ago. I was horrible at implementing PECS, we've tried several times and each time it was just "ugh" and to tell the truth, I've been a little sluggish in Proloquo2go as well....BUT....
DS has had this iPad for 2 weeks and his words and approximations have easily tripled. The dam is breaking. We still have a LOOOOOONG way to go, but the apps and games have been the best therapy so far, we it!!!
Thanks so much for sharing! Right now we are using PECS with our daughter but I would really like it if we could just do everything on a device. I think it would make it easier as far the pictures go. Taking the pictures and laminating is so time consuming and then having to carry around the book with all the pictures is no fun either. I'm just not sure which directions to go with our DD. She doesn't always respond to things. Everyday is like a new adventure with her, she is constantly changing what she will do. There is no consistency. We are consistent with her and so are her teachers and therapist but she loses ground all the time, then will one day pick something back up. I don't want to spend all that money and her not respond to it but at the same time if she would respond then it would make life so much easier. Just don't know what to do.
You're right, it's way easier to get pictures just from google images, it only takes a second. There is a lot of programming, sometimes i get overwhelmed or just need a break. Does your dd use pecs consistently? I'd heard of icommunicate on another board but I didnt investigate it much since DS's school/therapists only suggested proloquo2go since that's what they use. Do your dd's therapists use the iPad in therapy? My ds took so well to it that they were talking about having him borrow one from their clinic since they were expecting grants to purchase loaners, but my dh wanted to go ahead and just get one for ds.
There's a free app for Tap to Talk which isn't really our bag, or for preschoolers really, but ds did one use it to ask for carrots.
My DD does use PECS consistently. She does understand how to get something even if she does not always pull the card that she wants. My DD has a lot of things that contribute to her delays. My DD therapists do NOT use the iPad. I have talked to them about it some but they have never used them and have not looked into the apps. I have started working with her some today on a free app that I found called iComm. The little bit I did with her today she seemed to understand somewhat. She did try to take the picture off of my phone. It may take some work getting her to understand to just touch the screen. I think that we will gradually move up to better apps and then to the iPad once we know it is going to work for her. I have an old iPod Touch that we can use for her but it just doesn't have a speaker so we won't do any voice output. Not sure when we will be able to afford to get her an iPad. Would really be great if insurance would pay for it.
I just checked out icomm, that's pretty good for free! Lots of programming, but what else is new, I think it'd be sufficient with or without speakers/sound. My ds is a trust fund kid otherwise his father and I wouldn't have been able to get the iPad/proloquo, but with all the press about iPads and SN kids, there might be assistive technology funds or coverage available, maybe. Bummer that dd's therapists don't use them. Have they worked with kids who use apps? Anywhichway, if dd uses pecs consistently, she'll probably excel with any app.
I'm so glad to have found this thread. My son was just diagnosed with Apraxia of speech. The Ipad apps are one thing that his SLP had mentioned. He is starting a special preschool in one week and they will start with the PECS. It seems like the pads with pictures would be a little easier on everyone. I did look into the programs and they are also avaliable on the Android platforms. Some of their pads are a little cheaper than an Ipad. All of this is so new to me, I would welcome any suggestions or ideas of anyone that has dealt with speech Apraxia.
I just wanted to mention that Proloquo2Go is only available on the iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) platform. The developers have chosen to make it only on that platform so they can continue to make improvements to the app rather than just keep trying to keep up with the platform and equipment changes.
I don't know about the other communication app developers.
I just wanted to mention that Proloquo2Go is only available on the iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) platform. The developers have chosen to make it only on that platform so they can continue to make improvements to the app rather than just keep trying to keep up with the platform and equipment changes.
I don't know about the other communication app developers.
Thanks for that info, I was unaware. DS used his to ask for more melon this morning, I am over the moon!
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