Video of the Week: Using AAC Facilitation Strategies
How can adults and peers who serve as communication partners support AAC learners in their interactions? Dr. Rae Sonnenmier of the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire has lots of implementation ideas.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: implementation ideas, Language facilitation strategies, partner strategies, Rae Sonnenmeier, University of New Hampshire
This post was written by Carole Zangari
2 Comments
I need advice in choosing an AAC device/software. My grandson is turning 6 next week. He has ASD and is nonverbal. At this time he has no means of communication. It seems as though everyone I speak with tells me something different.
Any advice would be welcomed!
Tina, thanks so much for writing! The best way to approach this is to request that his SLP do an AAC evaluation. Each child is so different in terms of their strengths, skills, and needs, and there are SO many AAC options. The idea is to have the SLP do a feature match assessment that includes a period of trial use with some of the different devices/apps that contain the features your grandson needs. If the SLP needs help in doing this kind of evaluation, please feel free to put them in touch with us here and we can try to provide some guidance. She may also want to visit our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PrAACticalAAC). We post resources there daily and she can also use it to post questions to other therapists. You are welcome, too, of course! Your grandson is a lucky little guy to have you advocating for him. 🙂