AAC Midterm

• The transmission of meaning from one individual to another
• Exchange of messages, info, or ideas
• Intentional or Unintentional 
• Conventional or Unconventional signals 
• Linguistic or Non-linguistic forms 
• Used by all humans and animals

• Facial expressions
• Gestures 
• Written lang 
• Sign
• Picture

Used by infants, children, adults, and animals

• Augmentative and Alternative Communication
• A system of multiple modes or components for communication using symbols, aids, and techniques

• An addition to natural speech and/or handwriting 
• Used by people who cannot communicate optimally through speech

A substitute for natural speech and/or handwriting

Integrated network of symbols, aids, skills, and strategies that a person uses to communicate

An assistive communication device that has be specifically designed for communication

An assistive communication device that features electronically produced voice or speech

New medicare term for AAC tech

• Involves the use of any aid external to the body 
• can't take it in the shower with you
• This is assistive technology

• Involves use of the body only
• May be unconventional; hitting, screaming, etc.

• Any tech used to enable people to perform tasks that are difficult to impossible due to disabilities 
• ex) wheelchairs, crutches, VOCA

• Expense
• **doesn't always have to be, funding available 
• User won't develop speech 
• **does not inhibit speech, may facilitate development

• Builds communication circles 
• Increases communication success 
• Reduce frustration 
• Elicit caregiver response 
• Increase control 
• Makes Lang visible

Enable individual to efficiently and effectively engage in a variety of communication interactions

• Communicate needs/wants
• Transfer info (tell people what happened)
• Social Closeness (joke, sympathy, feelings, etc)
• Social etiquette (greetings, manners)

• Number of items: think of cognitive ability 
• Size of symbols: think of vision and motor skills 
• Spacing and arrangement: think of ease of access of board and symbols, try to support literacy

• Cannot be moved
• Limited Space
• Multitude of displays

• a) uses computer screens and folders open new boards
• b) tells user what is available 
• activates what could go with what you chose 
• ex) 1st person pronouns →I →am were
• **only things that make sense in the sequence will be available for selection

• Touch
• Grasp
• Type

• Facilitator or device reads through all possible choices and the AAC user indicates which one they want; eyeblink, vocalization, etc. 
• Circle
• Linear
• Group (eventually goes to linear)

• 1980s
• Stored digital data
• Text to Speech 
• ex) Steven Hawking

• Natural speech recorded, stored, and replayed 
• **make sure it fits the user. No grown man voice for a child

Skills of communication prior to using words with intent

• Document communication needs
• Determine # of needs met through current communication techniques 
• Reduce # of unmet communication need through AAC intervention

• Initial Assessment for Today 
• Assess physical, cognitive, lang, and sensory abilities and needs 
• goal: gather info to develop an intervention to meet the needs

• Detailed Assessment for Tomorrow
• Determine needs across environment, including future participation 
• goal: create communication system that can be used in multiple environments

• Follow-Up Assessment
• goal: maintain AAC system to meet the changing needs and capabilities of the user

• Speech and Lang is not developing at a typical rate 
• Lang is not meeting communication needs

• Standardized Tests
• Interviews
• Observations 
• Diagnostic Intervention

• **Imposed by other people that are not the AAC user 
• Govern the agency where the user participates

• **Imposed by other people that are not the AAC user 
• Seperate students with disabilities from peers 
• **illegal in US to ban students with disabilities from reg ED classrooms

• **Imposed by other people that are not the AAC user 
• School limit the use of system because it was purchased by them with limited funds

Person assisting the AAC user doesn't know/understand how to use the system