You’ll find a variety of blog posts aimed at parents, speech therapists, and students, with topics ranging from nonspeaking children and getting started with AAC, modeling AAC and how to support children wtih complex communication needs learning how to communicate with AAC.
Tagged with: Communication Board
If you’ve spent any time here on my website or follow me on social media, then you’ve probably noticed that I love visual resources. Visual supports are imperative for child learning, and there are few visual supports that I love more than a communication board (you can download my FREE Core Communication Board).
It stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and it basically refers to any kind of communication system that helps kids (or anyone, for that matter) express their needs to you if they can’t use verbal speech.
One of the biggest misconceptions I see in my practice is that people think that AAC only refers to sleek gadgets activated by fancy buttons.
In fact, some of the most effective AAC supports I use every day are quite simple, and considered “no tech” or “paper based”.
I started seeing a child a few weeks ago who was stuck in the “I want” phrase, unable to say anything else. Mom was trying to teach her basic verbs (e.g. “eating, running, drinking,”) but she was adding the “I want” phrase to EVERYTHING so that when she was putting words together and it didn't always make sense.
When children reach a plateau like this, and are unable to put words together into phrases or sentences, this is always when I start thinking CORE WORDS.