What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication? How do I know if an individual is a good candidate for AAC? What are the individual's cognitive abilities? What are the individual's physical abilities? What is the most important vocabulary relevant to the individual? A human right. Read more. AAC is a tool, strategy, support or any form of communication used in addition to or in place of the spoken word. Many possibilities. No Tech Gestures, body language, facial expressions, pointing, signing and vocalisations.
Discover more. Our AAC vision. Everyone is able. Get inspired by others. Small wins matter. Take the first steps. The power of teams. Let us support your team. The power to be you. What is the Power to be You? Important to know. Learn more. Or, your child could use a normal communication device but access it using a variety of easy-to-use switches, such as the following from Mayer Johnson :.
There is nothing that says that children must have great language skills before they can start communicating! You can start with one button and one word that the child is able to say using a communication device.
The child only needs to understand that they want the thing they get when they push that button. The language skills will follow once he understands the effect that communicating has it gets him what he wants! Think of it like this: we talk to children and use speech around them well before they are able to understand it or use it themselves. This is one I commonly see in children with autism.
For some children, that may be the case, but you never know until you try. It is very likely that the child does not yet understand the power of communication. Once you teach the child that pushing a button will get her something she wants, you may be surprised how much her interest in communication grows.
For many children, spoken words are much too difficult so verbal communication is not even an option. If that is the only means of communication they have been exposed to, they will not be very interested in communicating since it is so difficult for them.
Once you give them an easier means of communicating, you may be able to show them how wonderful communication is and get them interested. Once they are interested in communicating, they often begin making more attempts at verbal communication as well! This is something that a lot of parents worry about when using AAC.
Mayer Johnson has come up with a great solution for this problem. These buttons contain one message but can be mounted anywhere in your house and would allow the child to request an object that is always near that location.
Since the child knows the juice is in the fridge, she will be likely to go there for the juice anyway and then there will be a communication device available for her. This is a great way to introduce the child to AAC because many children will lead an adult over to what they want anyway. Click Here to purchase this or any Mayer Johnson product on their website, you will also receive free shipping on your order by following my affiliate links! In short, there are no prerequisites skills for AAC devices that a child must meet before he or she is allowed to try an AAC device.
I hope this helps you understand a little more about how AAC can be used with non-verbal and very young children. Using AAC is such a wonderful way to get non-verbal or unintelligible children to start talking and there are so many options out there. Many times, using an AAC device is just what is needed to give the child a jump-start to communicating and eventually get her talking! Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients? This is a very good article.
So many people do not understand that there are no prerequisites for using AAC!! Thank you! Thanks so much for posting this article. No problem! Since I have been in the field a relatively short time compared to some SLPs, my training included information about how there were not any prerequisites for AAC so I was surprised that so many people thought there were.
Hopefully this will help clear up some confusion! My son was using AAC by 28 months. So often the myth of too young is out there…. I wish we would have introduced it sooner. It could have avoided some stressful times with behaviors. Life got a bit easier once basic needs were met. He is 5 now and has had his Vantage Lite for 2 years! He is still learning but he certainty understand that it is his talker and is using it more and more to communicate.
It was pretty cute, funny, and awesome all together! Also love LAMP too! That is so wonderful! Good luck in the future and thank you for reading!! Individuals who have severe expressive language delays or disorders may rely on AAC to supplement existing speech or as an alternative to speech.
Individuals who may be candidates for AAC include those diagnosed with autism, intellectual disability, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, stroke, and other developmental or acquired neurological conditions. AAC has been shown to increase functional communication and expression and improve quality of life.
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