Category: AAC

By Erin Birmingham

Special Education Teacher at Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association for Special Education

 Individuals with disabilities communicate in a variety of ways: vocalizations, facial expressions, gestures, eye gaze, body language, touch, verbalizations and more.  Family members are often the translators for their son, daughter, sister or brother. Most parents can tell what their child needs just by looking at them.

When the “translator” isn’t present, though, it can be hard for the child to make themselves understood. School, day programs, special recreation centers, residential living facilities, and anywhere in the community are challenging places for your loved one to communicate their wants and needs. That results in a lot of frustration.

So, how can we make communication easier for everyone?

Families of a person with a disability can work with a speech-language pathologist to find the right AAC device for your child. There are low-tech options like communication boards, communication books and visual pictures. Mid-tech tools, like Enabling Devices’ Talkables line of communicators, use recorded speech to give a voice to the individual. And there are high-tech tools like iPads with communication apps. A speech-language pathologist will work with you and your child to trial a variety of communication tools before making a recommendation.

After making a recommendation, a speech-language pathologist will train the individual and their family members how to navigate the communication tool. This is the most crucial part to make communication with your individual with a disability successful! It takes time and patience but all the effort will pay off.

Now that everyone has been trained, it’s time to take that communication tool on the road–literally! Bring it everywhere! Create opportunities for your child to communicate with the world around them. These opportunities could include ordering at a restaurant, shopping at the grocery store, greeting neighbors and store cashiers and conversing with friends.

There are lots of opportunities for the communication tool to be used at home as well. Playing games as a family, choosing what to have for dinner, telling jokes, are just some examples. Feeling overwhelmed? You can start with simple “yes” and “no” questions. Modeling is also a great strategy for family members to show their child where words and phrases are located. It is also critical that your child gets an opportunity to explore their communication tool on their own. You may be surprised what comments and questions they have!

Parents sometimes wonder if introducing a communication tool will stop their child from talking. Rest assured that the communication tool will not replace any language a child has already developed. Research has shown that communication tools actually expand their vocabulary and encourage them to communicate more.

And that’s what every parent wants–a way their child can communicate their wants and needs in the world outside their home.  By providing your child with the right AAC device, you’re equipping them with the means to participate in the wider world.

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month and we can’t think of a more appropriate time to raise awareness about communication disorders, and the game-changing impact of augmentative and alternative (AAC) communication devices.

According to the folks at CommunicationsMatters.org, AAC describes the “various methods of communication that are used to get around problems with ordinary speech. AAC includes simple systems such as pictures, gestures and pointing, as well as more complex techniques involving powerful computer technology.” These systems and technologies enable individuals with a variety of disabilities to communicate their needs, thoughts and feelings. In other words, they play an extremely important role in enhancing the quality of life!

For optimal results, AAC should be used at home, in school, at work and everywhere else. Yet, for a variety of reasons, some people with speech and language disorders don’t use their AAC systems consistently enough. The following strategies are designed to make access to AAC devices a regular part of your classroom or home life.

Learn to use devices and or technologies
If you’re a parent or teacher of a student with a speech disability, it’s essential that you understand how his AAC device works. Speech and Language Kids.com recommends that teachers and families be trained to use and program the devices being used. “Just as a family that speaks only Chinese would have a hard time teaching their children English, the child you’re working with will have a hard time learning to use his AAC device if you don’t know how to use it either.”

Practice conversing with AAC
To help your child or student get comfortable using her AAC device, model its use for her. As Speech and Language Kids.com suggests: “Use the system when you are talking to the child, talking to other adults, talking to other children, etc.” so that she wants to try it too.

Make the AAC device accessible
AAC device users should have access to a device wherever they are. Enabling Devices sells many portable communicators such as the Hip Talk series, the Clip talk and the Wearable Talker. Or, hang our Put-Em-Arounds all around your classroom or home so they’re always nearby.

Don’t expect immediate fluency
Depending on the child’s developmental level as well as the difficulty of the device he is learning to use, achieving fluency on an AAC device can take time. Make sure that AAC practice sessions are positive experiences. Says the Center for AAC and Autism: “Briefly encourage device use during activities while they are meaningful and enjoyable but quit while it’s going well. There is a danger in pushing too hard and too fast in that the child will see the device as something that makes his life harder.”

Don’t believe myths about AAC
AAC devices help to build and improve communication skills, yet some mistakenly believe that AAC use will decrease the user’s motivation toward natural speech. Research does not support this idea.  On the contrary, Millar, Light, & Schlosser found AAC use can help to “improve natural speech when therapy focuses simultaneously on natural speech development and use of AAC in a multimodal approach.”