A Parent’s Guide to AAC for Children
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What is AAC and why is it important for children with speech delays?
Hey, everybody. This is Kari Clark, and you are listening to the episode number seven of the Speech and Language Kids podcast. This is the podcast with activities and resources for families of children with speech and language delays and disorders. Today, I'm going to give you an overview of augmented and alternative communication, also known as AAC. And in the quick tip, I'll tell you where you can download tons of free speech and language materials made by speech language pathologists. I don't have any news and updates today, so I'm going to jump straight into our feature segment, which is what is AAC? All right. As I just mentioned, AAC stands for Augmented and Alternative Communication, and this encompasses any alternative form of communicating with others.
So this might be using sign, sign language or gestures, using a button that when you push it, it speaks the message, having a computer that speaks a message for the person, anything that a person can do to communicate without using the traditional means, which would be speaking or talking. It's something that we often use with children with speech and language delays, sometimes just for a short period of time to get them started. Sometimes there are children who use it their whole lives. So it's something that we get a lot of questions about. And I just kind of wanted to give you a nice brief overview today. For the rest of the overview, I am going to be referring to it as AAC, which is just kind of that overall term that's going to encompass any kind of alternative communication.
I also want to talk a little bit about what is total communication. And total communication is an approach that is often used for children with speech and language delays when they're having trouble communicating or they're having trouble understanding what other people are saying. Total communication is something you can do that will just give them every opportunity to be able to learn language and learn how to communicate. And what total communication is, is incorporating every... Let's see, incorporating multiple different alternative means of communicating all at once so if you're using total communication when you communicate with a child you're going to be speaking the words that you want to say but you're also going to be signing and you may have pictures that represent the things that you're telling them so let's say you have a childhood and you want them to stand up you would say stand up but at the same time you'd be signing stand up and they'd also have a picture in front of them that showed them what it looks like to stand up
Basically, you're giving them that language in every input way you possibly can. A lot of times, preschools that are working with children with speech and language delays, those preschools will use total communication where they'll have a visual schedule up on the wall that'll show the children what they're supposed to do. They'll be using sign language as they communicate. They'll be speaking, of course. They may also have different visuals for certain activities of the day or for directions that they give, like I gave the example of standing up. So they're going to use a lot of different means of communication in those kinds of preschools and those kinds of settings. You can do that at home too. You can incorporate some sign language and you can incorporate pictures as cues for your children.
Those are just things that are going to give them a little extra boost to understand what you're saying and have that means of being able to communicate in a way that is different than speaking if speaking is getting a little too difficult for them. Okay, so I just kind of wanted to mention that briefly, but let's go into who uses AAC. There are a lot of different categories of kids that would be appropriate for AAC, and I kind of want to talk about each of them just a little bit. The first one would be a child who has very poor speech, and I'm not just talking about a kid who can't say his R or who has trouble with his Ks and Gs.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is AAC and why is it important for children with speech delays?
0:00–4:39
2
How does Total Communication combine speech, signs, and pictures to support learning?
4:39–9:37
3
Which children are most likely to benefit from AAC (e.g., autism, apraxia, Down syndrome)?
9:37–14:08
4
Will using AAC prevent my child from learning to talk?
14:08–18:24
5
What are the main types of AAC (sign language, picture exchange, picture boards, voice‑output devices)?
18:24–22:45
6
How do I set up a simple picture‑exchange system (PECS) at home?
22:45–25:55
7
How can I create a picture‑board for my child to point to choices?
25:55–29:03
8
Where can I find free speech‑language materials and resources for AAC?
29:03–32:36