About This Week
Welcome to Week 6 of your Stepping into AAC journey! This week, it’s all about personalization. Join us on a little detour and learn to customize your AAC learner’s communication board by adding words relevant to their day-to-day lives and unique preferences.
You will explore the following concepts this week:
- Adding Fringe & Other High-interest Vocabulary: Learn how to expand the AAC system by including words that are relevant and highly motivating to the AAC learner in your life.
- Customize by Adding Relevant Words: Use our templates and instructions to add fringe vocabulary words to the communication board.
- Templates for personalizing the vocabulary for various communication boards can be downloaded from the Resource Page. Scroll down to the Communication Board section, and select the template for the specific board that you are using.
- Expanding Socially-focused Communication: Gain insight into ways we can support social communication through AAC.
- On Making Meaning: Learn how to work collaboratively with your AAC learner to co-create meaningful interactions.
AACtion Steps
Week 6 AACtion Steps
Signposts
Expanding AAC – Adding Fringe & High-Interest Vocabulary
Expanding AAC systems by adding fringe words, which are high-interest and specific vocabulary, enhances language learning and interaction. Fringe words, such as nouns like “dance” and “dinosaur,” add interest and energy to conversations and make AAC systems more motivating to learn.
Expanding AAC – Social Vocabulary & Comments
Adding social vocabulary and comments to an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) learner’s system enhances engagement and learning opportunities. Social messages, greetings, small talk phrases, and age-relevant slang can be included. They provide opportunities for using AAC in a fun and informative way while also expanding understanding and connection.
Co-Construction – Build Meaning Together with AAC
Co-construction is a collaborative process between AAC communication partners and AAC learners to shape messages and enhance communication. It involves honoring multimodal communication, providing wait time, offering the best guess, and speaking AAC. Co-construction promotes the autonomy of AAC learners to make interactions more effective and efficient.
Get the Handout
Travelog
Week 6 Travelog
Bonus Resources
View and download a document to help you customize your AAC learner’s communication board. This links to templates that align with the specific board you selected in Week 1 and provides instructions on how to add vocabulary. You can do that electronically and print the updated board from your computer, or take a no-tech approach and add the new words using paper, scissors, and glue.
Customizing Your Board
Print the Week
Want all of the resources shared in this week’s Stepping into AAC? You can download the entire digital bundle by clicking the download button below.
