Name: The Fifth Competency: Supporting Emotional Competency in AAC
Start: 2025-04-08T12:15:00-0400
End: 2025-04-08T13:30:00-0400

The #TalkingAAC 2024 Conference Was a Success! Keep the Momentum Going with On-Demand Learning Through December 31, 2024.

ON-DEMAND Content:

This year, we’ve added a new, separate asynchronous learning option featuring FOUR (4) ON-DEMAND 75-minute, pre-recorded sessions.

BONUS:

All IN-PERSON attendees have received access to these recorded sessions as part of their 2-day conference registration. You can access the ON-DEMAND content through the Sched registration portal.

Interested in On-Demand Content Only?

Great news! Registration is available through December 27, 2024 for just $60.

Event Instructions or Terms and Conditions

#TalkingAAC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established for continued education.
Please note: Continuing Education Credits are not available for the on-demand content.

REFUNDS & TICKET TRANSFERS

Refunds are not available for the On-Demand only Content.

Questions? Check out www.talkingaac.org or email info@talkingaac.org

Tuesday April 8, 2025 12:15pm - 1:30pm EDT

Room 103

We often talk about the various competencies we should support in AAC. Many are aware of linguistic, operational, social, and strategic competencies (Light, 1989). A fifth competence, emotional competence, was proposed by Blackstone and Wilkins in 2009. While social and emotional competency is often supported and developed with speaking children, it is less likely to be thoroughly supported with persons who use AAC (Blackstone and Wilkins, 2009).

Emotional competency includes an awareness and understanding of emotions. This competency includes empathy, coping, self-regulation, societal norms, sensory regulation, expression of feelings, and cause and effect of actions. Blackstone and Wilkins claim “Emotional competencies are intricately related to pragmatics, social communication, and communication with one’s self” (2009). This would suggest communication is the crux of healthy emotional development.

The importance of emotional competency within AAC is further highlighted when we consider the mental health statistics of those with communication disorders. The National Alliance on Mental Illness notes that in 2020, 21% of US adults and 16.5% of US youth aged 6-17 have experienced mental health issues (NAMI.org, 2022). Recent research indicates that the rate of mental health issues is much higher among those with complex communication needs (Watson, Reghavendra, & Crocker, 2021). Therefore, people using AAC should have access to and understand how and when to use language to discuss their mental health and wellness thus developing their emotional competency.

Grid 3 communication software offers access to mental health, wellness, and socially connective vocabulary and strategies. We will tour vocabulary and grid sets available and highlight emotional competency tools that have been specifically oriented within the software to more fully allow the AAC user opportunities to discuss and tend to their emotional competency. We will discuss how similar tools could be integrated into other software.

In this presentation, we work to summarize and explore vocabulary, tools, and best practices in increasing an AAC user’s advocacy and emotional competence. We examine the research and pitfalls for those who support AAC users while highlighting the importance of this critical competency that tends to be the missing piece. We delve into moving beyond labeling emotions, to discussing emotional situations, talking about others’ emotions, developing an inner voice, and supporting advocacy and self-regulation skills.
Presenter: Abigail Warner, MA, CCC-SLP
Vendor: Talk to Me Technologies and Smartbox

Vendors

Talk To Me Technologies & Smartbox AT

Tuesday April 8, 2025 12:15pm - 1:30pm EDT
Room 103

Vendor Presentation

#TalkingAAC 2025

Talk To Me Technologies & Smartbox AT

Sign up or log in to save this to your schedule, view media, leave feedback and see who's attending!