Early in my career, I underestimated the social aspects of learning, especially for my students who presented with complex communication needs.  I often took my students into a small "treatment room" either individually or in a small group and taught specific skills.  I celebrated their successes in this environment, but often experienced difficulty getting kids to replicate these skills in their classrooms or with other communication partners.  The current literature regarding AAC use is littered with similar experiences about the difficulty in getting kids who use AAC to generalize their skills beyond certain isolated activities or communication partners.  There is even evidence to suggest that most AAC devices are abandoned within their first year of use. 

While working for a medium sized school district I was supported in exploring the current research regarding this issue.  I was encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of various  speech-language pathology k-12 service delivery models, while considering the population I was serving.  At that time, I was mainly serving students who spent the majority of their day in a self-contained classrooms, referred to as life skills or functional life skills classrooms.  Based on our research, myself and several other SLPs decided to launch a pilot project. There were several aspects to the pilot, but in terms of service delivery, we decided to concentrate on building relationships with our teachers and teaching assistants using classroom based services that included team teaching and one teach, one watch (Flynn, 2010).

These classroom based service models were initially met by classroom special education teachers with fear.  Change is hard.  But, what this model offered was "in the moment" modeling, coaching and discussions with the student, teacher and teaching assistants on how to best facilitate communication and integrate the student's AAC devices into all aspects of their day. 

Using these models takes time.  Time to develop trust and relationships with other professionals.  I believe my successes have far outweighed my failures to date.  Since implementing this model, I have not gone back to pull-out services.  In my experience, the "one person is an expert" model did not work.  Successful AAC use is a group effort and the responsibilities must be shared among participants.  

I create weekly lessons using some specialized software and technology as well as "mainstream" technology.  Please check out my section: K-12 activities that get kids communicating! 

Communication Rocks!
Robin

Flynn, P. (2010). New Service Delivery Models: Connecting SLPs with Teachers and Curriculum. The ASHA Leader.

I was inspired by this TED talk: "How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World" by Clay Shirky. He discusses the many volunteer hours spent by individuals lending their talent to programming open source software.  He discusses the potential to direct these hours toward solving some of the worlds biggest problems. 

I have been serving individuals with complex communication disorders for over fifteen years now.  I am guided by theAmerican Speech and Hearing Association's Communication Bill of Rights (ASHA, 1992) which outlines the minimum communication skills and rights for users of Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices and strategies.  These rights include the ability to communicate for all pragmatic purposes; greet, request, make choices, question, and inform, to name a few.  It includes the right to an appropriate AAC device and that it be consistently made available and in good working order. And the right to intervention; therapeutic intervention that helps these individuals achieve functional and effective communication across environments and communicative partners. 

I have been encouraged over my many years in this field that the quality of life for individuals with complex communication needs will be significantly improved through the use of AAC devices and services.  There have been significant innovations and improvements to technology, along with a decrease in price, lending potential  support to these individuals.  Students are investing more credit hours at the University level in the areas of Assistive Technology and its sub-set, Augmentative and Alternative Communication.  And, there are more laws governing the provision and use of Assistive Technology in the workplace and the educational setting. There are many success stories out there, and my story needs not to diminish their value.  However, the success stories, in my experience, are the exception, not the rule.  

This blog and website seeks to open a discussion among professionals, caregivers and AAC users so that we may begin to make these "success stories" the norm, instead of the exception.  For starters, despite technology becoming cheaper, I don't see this impacting the major companies that provide some of the most sophisticated Speech Generating Devices (SGDs).  Why isn't this dropping their prices? I see school teachers and parents charged with the day to day support required to produce an AAC expert user with little knowledge themselves about language acquisition or sound pedagogical strategies as to how to teach communication and language skills to these individuals.   I see teachers who must teach in several languages, if you will, in the same classroom- juggling Picture Communication Symbols from Mayor Johnson, Symbolstyx and Vantage, to name a few.  But, where I mention difficulties or barriers, I also see solutions.  

I will continue to use the Communication Bill of Rights (ASHA, 1992) as a framework for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of this field so that we may begin to see a real change in the quality of life for individuals with complex communication needs.

Reference List: 

From the National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities. (1992). Guidelines for meeting the communication needs of persons with severe disabilities. Asha, 34(Suppl. 7), 2–3.