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How Can I Support AAC Use at Home?

If someone you love is using an Alternative or Augmentative Communication (AAC) device, it’s important to support them at home as well as in therapy so that they can learn to use it in different contexts and with different people. Here are a few things you can do to help them learn more quickly and use their device more effectively. 

Provide Access!!!

This is the single most important thing you can do to encourage effective communication with an AAC device. A device is your child’s voice, so they need access to it. Keep it out, keep it charged, and keep it turned on. Even when they’re tired or have been in therapy all day, they don’t need a break from functional communication, just like you never need a break from being able to express yourself. If you’re worried that they’re tired or frustrated from a long day, just take a break from asking questions or requiring them to use it for a while, but keep it out so that they can choose to use it if they want. 

Use it yourself

You may not be very familiar with your child’s device, but that’s ok because they may not be either! Anything that you can say using the device gives them examples of what they can say and how to problem solve if they can’t find the word they want, and encourages them to use it. 

Encourage them to use their device

If you know what they want, help them find it on their device. They need lots of practice and lots of examples to become more effective communicators. 

Respond to what they choose as if it was on purpose

If your child chooses something, respond to it by answering, making a comment, or giving them what they asked for. For example, if they say “hi” over and over, tell them hi back! If they ask for pudding, even if you’re not sure they want it, offer pudding! There’s no guarantee that you already know what they want (the whole point of AAC is that each person is complex and unique, so you’ll never know 100% what they want unless they can tell you), so you have to honor what they’re saying and respond as if they meant it. If they didn’t want what they asked for, then you can show them how to say “no” and they learn to try something else next time. 

Read books, especially repetitive books 

Reading is so important for AAC users to learn to use their device, as well as to learn important pre-literacy skills that will help them with reading later on. Read a book with a vocabulary word you know and use that word every time. Some great books for this are The Very Hungry Caterpillar for “eat,” Go, Dog, Go for “go,” or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? for “see.” Here’s a longer list. 70 Kids Picture Books to Target Core Vocabulary for AAC

If you can use all the words suggested, that’s great, but if you can only use 1-2 words, that’s great too.

Give it a try!

AAC can seem intimidating, and it may be hard to know what to do, but don’t worry! It’s more important to engage and try than it is to do everything perfectly. You won’t always be able to find what you’re looking for, and you won’t always understand what they’re trying to tell you. But any time you use their device or provide access for them to use it, they become more comfortable using it and they learn how to use it more effectively. 

Written by: Kerry Symes

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