Too often in therapy or educational programs designed for children who use AAC systems the skills (linguistic, literacy and social) are taught in isolation rather than in an integrated manner. Learning in isolation fragments communication and often one or more component of communication is underserved. In some instances portions of the device may even be “hidden” such as an alphabet display or in light tech situations the student may have only one small 8 location communication display for everything. The situations below describe why an integrated model is necessary.

Situation 1: Testing is not Communication
In these cases, the first methods of instruction resemble testing rather than communication. In some instances, only the linguistic elements of communication are taught out of context. For example, “Touch the cup.”, or “Show me the shoe.” while sitting at a table. Unfortunately, these methods may also be used to determine eligibility for AAC. As a result, many students may never make the cut for AAC nor ever learn the value of communication or be given the opportunity to move beyond this point. The mistake here is not realizing that communication happens first and until the student sees the value of communication all other forms of instruction will seem meaningless to the child.

Situation 2: Participation Only
In other situations, students are only given opportunities to participate socially with their AAC systems. While participation is a starting place, communication strategies must include a process for teaching more than errorless communication. Participation alone is not sufficient for learning how to communicate. Cognitive engagement is a key element here. (Cognitive Engagement is the idea that students are actively involved in the communication process, and facilitators provide models of good communication and informative feedback to the student’s communicative attempts. The student learns why they are being asked to communicate and what it will help them accomplish. ) If students are not cognitively engaged and there is no plan in place, students will never move forward on a continuum that leads to communication success.

Situation 3: Isolated Skills Taught
Lastly, some students who use high-tech AAC systems may only be taught how to build sentences without attention or minimal attention to literacy or social skills. While these students can build simple sentences, opportunities for integrating literacy skills into instruction may be missed and therefore students become “stuck” at a pre-primer literacy level. In addition, opportunities to communicate with speaking peers, or participate in classroom activities are limited because of timing, miscommunication and lack of strategically teaching social skills. As a result communication in general can be rejected as they reach early adolescence.

Stay tuned in for more of how to prepare for an Integrated Model.