Augmentative and alternative communication.

Augmentative and alternative communication.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) was implemented for school-age children with known disabilities that make it hard for them to create spoken language. These children were employed in non-productive sheltered workshop activities. Children with language or speech problems need AAC to help them communicate. That’s why technology has brought hope to them through the introduction of new approaches called augmentative and alternative communication. The essay helps us understand many options that are available for children who do not speak and how to best use these procedures in the classroom setting.

AAC includes all the ways of sharing ideas and feelings without talking. Forms of AAC are used every day like when we use gestures or facial expressions instead of talking. For example, a student with fragile X syndrome is said to have severe articulation problems that make her speech difficult to understand. She carries communication wallet with pictures which she shows to others for them to understand the information she is passing. Another student with cerebral palsy attends a general education classroom. The student uses a head pointer to touch electronic keyboard because of his limited motor ability. The keyboard formulates written messages and produces voice output helping the student learn with others. The last one with down syndrome learns a repertoire of eight signs that she uses to survive in class through supplementation of her limited spoken output.

All these individuals are using some types of augmentative or alternative communication procedures. AAC provides hope and development of communication skills for children with severe communication disorders and language. Surveys within states have indicated that more than two million people in the United States with language impairment use AAC devices. Hence the AAC system is designed to replace or supplement natural communication and language of persons with disabilities.