There are many people who have never even heard of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and those that have often shy away from it for lack of knowledge. There are many myths floating around about AAC that are simply not true. October is AAC Awareness Month so let’s separate the myths from the facts. Myth 1: The goal of AAC is to communicate basic needs The goal of AAC is to communicate the needs AND wants of the individual. [...]
Our language is made up of small words and enormous words, simple words and complex words, beautiful words and healing words. Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things. I am tempted to think there are no little things. –Bruce Barton. There are many little words which make up our everyday language, a group of them are called the core vocabulary. WHAT IS CORE VOCABULARY? Core vocabulary is a set of words that we use frequently during communication, [...]
One of the biggest problems in AAC is the lack of training for communication partners - and even speech-language pathologists. We have moved ahead of the thinking that we can just put an AAC system in front of the student and think he’ll start communicating. It has finally gotten through to us all that students need direct, structured, modeled instruction. There are a couple of forms this instruction can - and should - take. Aided Language Stimulation is the [...]
The great Maya Angelou so wisely acknowledged that “Words are things. We must be careful about the words we use. Someday we will be able to measure the power of words.” Can you imagine living in a world where words did not come so easily and communication seemed near impossible? Maya Angelou could. She spent many years of her childhood completely unable to communicate using speech. She knew all too well the struggles and the isolation. THE GIFT [...]
How cool would it be to have the same symbol being represented by multiple characters? Very nice, right? Smarty Symbols is proud to announce our latest innovation: One symbol with multiple characters! Why have communication symbols only offered one option of characters for decades? Maybe because Smarty Symbols did not exist yet! Worry not, we have arrived to shake up and freshen up communication and symbol support for all learners. Picture this: A young female AAC user [...]
