Dr. May Aguis: Breaking Barriers to AAC in Malta
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Why do the hosts question the use of “best practice” in therapy?
Welcome to Talking Tech. I'm your host, Rachel Madle, joined as always by Chris Bougay. Hey Chris. How's it going, Rachel? Good. What you got this week?
Um, are you having the best day ever, Rachel? Is this like the best time that you're having?
A I always have the best day ever when I get to see you.
Oh, that's so sweet. That's so nice. W would you say this is better than yesterday and when we didn't get to chat and hang out?
Definitely.
Yeah to think about that one, all right. Here's why I asked and why I'm stressing the word best. Something that's been on my mind recently has been This term best practice. It's thrown around in uh pretty much every educational professional circle I know of. I would imagine it's thrown around in other uh professional circles as well. Like, well, this is best practice. And it's I hear it said so often, it got me really wondering, says who? Like, who gets to determine what's best practice? And when you're sitting at an IEP table or Or you're having a conversation with another professional and you hear them say the term best practice. What does that mean? How do we define it and who decides? What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I mean, I feel like we hear this all the time and everyone's like kind of referencing this when they're trying to like make an argument for one thing versus another. It's like, well, this is best practice. And it's such a nebulous term that it's like floating around and you know, nobody really knows what it means. And I feel like it's something that depending on your experience and also your discipline, because we're kind of sitting around the table oftentimes at IU. IP meetings and we're with other professionals, I think that it like it becomes even more challenging because We all have different definitions of what it means.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh I I I could see a real powerful moment would be when someone throws out the term best practice in one of those meanings to stop and say Ask one of our reflective questions. Can you tell me what what do you mean by best practice? Right? And could you define what you mean by best practice? Because It's it is. It's such a nebulous term. The the other thing that sort of has got me thinking about that is um Best practices, I'm gonna put that in air quotes again, is uh seems to evolve. You know, I guess at one point someone would have said uh uh electroshock therapy was a best practice, right? And then it evolves. So we wouldn't say that's a best practice, but when's the moment in time when something tips the scale from being the best practice to now knowing that we have a better practice?
Yeah, I mean, I think like you said, things are constantly changing. And so it's so subjective in nature. It's like, well, like compared to what? Compared to and it's also so personalized based on so many different factors of what this person thinks is best practice is different, what the person next to them thinks. And so yeah, it's just I think it's a way to again kind of showcase that you have the best perspective and this is the way to do things. And I think whenever people use that term, again, I think it's usually to try to convince people or to share that what I'm saying is quote unquote best practice, aka the way you should do things. And I also think it's just, you know, and We've shared this before on the podcast.
Whenever you're trying to collaborate with people, like throwing around research, throwing around the even the the phrase best practice, it just gets people ready for a fight. And it doesn't really support collaboration and it can make people quite defensive. Um, and so I think that it's also kind of a loaded term, often the way that it's used. Not always, but um I think it can be used in that way too.
Maybe the better practice is to not use the term best practice. What do you think about that?
Yeah. I mean I think I'm trying to think of a situation where I would say best practice and then what I could say in instead. I mean, I guess I would just say the exact specific approach or idea that I'm sharing.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why do the hosts question the use of “best practice” in therapy?
0:08–10:57
2
How does Dr. May redefine AAC beyond traditional assistive technology?
10:57–22:32
3
What role do sensory needs and interdisciplinary teams play in successful AAC interventions?
22:32–32:41
4
How did Dr. May become involved with the World Health Organization’s Assistive Technology Advisory Group?
32:41–43:12
5
What challenges does Malta face with language representation in AAC, especially for Maltese?
43:12–54:05
6
How does the National Assistive Technology Team train schools and expand AAC services to adults?
54:05–1:03:44
7
What emerging technologies (e.g., AI, integrated wheelchair control) are shaping the future of AAC?
1:03:44–1:06:49
8
What final thoughts and next steps do the hosts and guest share for the AAC community?
1:06:49–1:10:17
Speakers
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