Augmentative+Communication

=Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)= We've been debating Best Practices for augmentative communication for decades. In some contexts, a functional communication approach seems to make sense. For example, a classroom teacher wants a way to assess learning for a non-verbal student, or a manager needs a non-verbal worker to communicate about essential job functions. These scenarios tend to be other-driven; that is, the communication is desired by someone other than the communicator.

Full language involves much more than that. With full language, you can express anything, and for many non-verbal students, that is the goal.

Form and Function is a way of looking at communication from the communicator's point of view.

Resources for Form and Function:

 * []
 * [|Communication Form and Function Matrix.pdf]
 * [|Communication Form and Function 11-21-06 (1).doc]

We want our non-verbal learners to be able to use the full power of language, so we have to look at language access strategies. Our augmentative devices, using current technology, can not match the speed of speech, or allow access to as many possible words. Usually, the language access strategies on a device will use a set of commonly-used words - the "core vocabulary" - and will make those words and phrases the easiest and quickest to select. Sets of other words, which may be task-specific, are mostly nouns and modifiers. These sets are called "fringe vocabulary".
 * [] is an excellent resource for AAC, core vocabulary, and language access design.
 * [] has an activity for language selection.
 * [|NLDAAC.pdf] Gail van Tatenhove's paper on AAC and language development
 * [|http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/2010/10/from-phrase-based-to-core-words.html] a teacher's blog about switching to a core-based strategy

Visual Scene Display (VSD)
Scene and Heard Scene Speak