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2.2: AAC Intervention Resources

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    Table 2.2.1 highlights a selection of important Internet resources for AAC.

    Table 2.2.1: AAC intervention web resources
    Resource Description Link
    AAC Kids The website provides step by step guidelines for early intervention specifically designed for children with complex communication needs. aackids.psu.edu
    PrAActical AAC Top blog in AAC provides practical resources for intervention. praacticalaac.org
    Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs Resources and ideas for teachers of learners with severe, profound, intensive, significant, complex or multiple special needs. teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com

    Communication Practices from the Autism Internet Modules

    The Autism Internet Modules have some terrific overviews of popular approaches to communication intervention for individuals with complex communication needs.

    1. Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
    2. Pivotal Response Training
    3. Naturalistic Intervention
    4. Functional Communication Training
    5. Speech Generating Devices

    These concise modules overview the essentials of a practice or concept along with reviewing key research findings and provide checklists for implementation.

    The National Joint Committee, A Communication Bill of Rights (NJC, 1992) is an important document outlining the human and civil rights of people with complex communication needs. This document draws connections to the concepts of inclusion, self-determination, universal design for learning, the least dangerous assumption, and valuing the human dignity of all people. Some of these rights are more straightforward, such as “8. The right to have access at all times to any needed augmentative and alternative communication devices and other assistive devices, and to have those devices in good working order.” Yet others are much more nuanced, “7. The right to have communication acts acknowledged and responded to, even when the intent of these acts cannot be fulfilled by the responder.” Taken together, they serve as an important message for pre-service teachers.

    Table 2.2.2: National Joint Committee, A Communication Bill of Rights

    National Joint Committee, A Communication Bill of Rights (NJC, 1992)

    All persons, regardless of the extent or severity of their disabilities, have a basic right to affect, through communication, the conditions of their own existence. Beyond this general right, a number of specific communication rights should be ensured in all daily interactions and interventions involving persons who have severe disabilities. These basic communication rights are as follows:

    1. The right to request desired objects, actions, events, and persons, and to express personal preferences, or feelings.
    2. The right to be offered choices end alternatives.
    3. The right to reject or refuse undesired objects, events, or actions, including the right to decline or reject all proffered choices.
    4. The right to request, and be given, attention from and interaction with another person.
    5. The right to request feedback or information about state, an object, a person, or an event of interest.
    6. The right to active treatment and intervention efforts to enable people with severe disabilities to communicate messages in whatever modes and as effectively and efficiently as their specific abilities will allow.
    7. The right to have communication acts acknowledged and responded to, even when the intent of these acts cannot be fulfilled by the responder.
    8. The right to have access at all times to any needed augmentative and alternative communication devices and other assistive devices, and to have those devices in good working order.
    9. The right to environmental contexts, interactions, and opportunities that expect and encourage persons with disabilities to participate as full communication partners with other people, including peers.
    10. The right to be informed about the people, things, and events in one's immediate environment.
    11. The right to be communicated with in a manner that recognizes and acknowledges the inherent dignity of the person being addressed, including the right to be part of communication exchanges about individuals that are conducted in his or her presence.
    12. The right to be communicated with in ways that are meaningful, understandable, and culturally and linguistically appropriate.

    This page titled 2.2: AAC Intervention Resources is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Samuel Sennott, Sheldon Loman, Kristy Lee Park, Luis F. Pérez, Michael J. Kennedy, John Romig, & Wendy J. Rodgers (Portland State University Library) .