Author: Anjali Barretto | November 10th, 2021
What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)? –
This is another one of my little yet unique stars. ‘A’ is a 6-year-old child who was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 2.6 years. He began with intervention and his parents have been relentless in practising all they are learning. With visual supports during speech therapy sessions, ‘A’ gradually began to use single words for communication. Being a strong visual learner, he also began to read. Yet he would continue to communicate predominantly at a single word level even though he could say more. Consequently, we decided to use visuals to help ‘A’ understand and use more language than he was currently.
After 2 weeks of using visuals, this is what his dedicated parents had to say….
“Hello Ma’am. I just want to say something….the visual cards are very helpful for ‘A’ to increase his speech. For example., Pehle A ko hum instructions dete thai like ‘Go to the toilet’, ‘Fan on or off’, ‘put on clothes’, ‘come’, ‘go’, ‘eat, bath, ‘close or open door’, ‘massage time’, ‘good morning or goodnight’, ‘hungry’. But jab A ko visuals dekhate hai to wo speech mein badal jata hai or samjhne mein bhi aasan hota hai A k liye. So thank you so much Ma’am🙏🙏.
Thank you ‘A’s’ mum and dad for your dedication and super efforts to help ‘A’ communicate more… this wouldn’t have been possible without you.
Now you decide… did the visuals augment (enhance) or alternate (substitute) his verbal communication?