Integrating AAC Instruction with Curriculum Standards

Many of our prAACtical AAC friends are members of ASHA’s Special Interest Group (SIG) on AAC and are able to access their quarterly publication, Perspectives on AAC. I was fortunate to be invited to submit an article for the September 2012 edition, guest edited by Gail Van Tatenhove, on the topic of including students with robust AAC devices in general education classrooms. Access to the final publication is limited to those who are ASHA SIG members, but Gail did get clearance for authors to be able to share their original unedited works. Several of those authors have given permission for their articles to be published on the Minspeak website and also here on our site.

In this post, we would like to share the work of Solana Henneberry, Jennifer Kelso, and Gloria Soto. This article describes a process of developing an AAC intervention plan that relate to the Common Core State Standards or individual state curriculum standards. Their 5-part process begins with assessment and AAC goal identification, then moves into identifying grade‐level content standards. The authors discuss the importance of determining the essential qualities of each standard as they relate both to language development and AAC. This leads to the development of relevant IEP goals and strategies for teaching pertinent skills.

Thank you to Drs. Henneberry, Kelso, and Soto for allowing us to share their work. You can access the original version of the article here. We also extend our appreciation to the AAC SIG for their work, especially the efforts of Gail Van Tatenhove, guest editor, and Sandy Grether, editor of Perspectives on AAC.

The reference for the published version of this article is as follows:
Henneberry, S., Kelso, J., & Soto, G. (2012).  Using standards‐based instruction to teach language to children who use AAC.  Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 21:92‐98.