AAC Devices and Special Needs Students

Some special needs students, including those who have autism, need help in communicating. When verbal communication is delayed or impossible, alternate means of expression need to be provided. Sometimes only paper and pencil are required. Other times a portable computerized communication device is necessary. The important point is that all children must be able to communicate and IEP teams must work together to make this possible. Fortunately there are tools available for assessing students’ communication abilities and needs and places to go to learn about AAC devices.

A good place to start is with “The Assistive Technology Continuum”. It could be posted in prominent places around school and in locations where IEP meetings take place. It should also be printed for distribution at IEP meetings. It provides a great summary.

The Assistive Technology Consideration Guide for IEP Teams can also be used for annual meetings or whenever there is a communication problem that needs to be addressed. Another tool, from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, is the Assistive Technology Evaluation Report Checklist. This is part of a longer document that contains lengthly and thorough check lists pertaining to communication. The Assistive Technology Evaluation Report Checklist is at the end of this paper and is available through my website.

SETT stands for Student, Environments, Tasks, and Tool. It is a form that helps to determine a student’s strengths and needs. It is a clean and simple document that outlines information pertinent to a child’s education. It too is available through my web site.

For a longer and more in depth look at communication and AAC there is the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI). It would be wise to have copies of the WATI for every SDC, RSP, psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, and principal. Additionally there could be three other copies for the staff to share that would be available in the staff room in a location where they wouldn’t become buried and forgotten.

For team members who have decided that a dynamic display device is needed, but who don’t know which dynamic display device to buy, the following web site is recommended: AAC devices. This url was obotained from an email message sent to QUIT, the list serve group.

If everyone is approached in the right way, with respect and calmness, more can be accomplished. When information is provided to the team that clarifies the student’s needs and the capabilities and features that the AAC devices have to offer, the chances for netting the right device for a student increases.