#TalkingAAC 2025

The world of AAC is always changing and knowing what access methods, language apps and accessories out there can be a big job to navigate. Wouldn’t it be great to learn from a hands-on course to experience types of AAC from low-tech to high-tech, trial access methods and collaborate with team members from OTs to teachers and SLPs? Through this hour and a half course small teams will be given four real-life case scenarios and explore over 25 different AAC devices from robust low-tech systems to high-tech devices. Case scenarios include preschool to high school students with complex communication needs and a range of access methods.  Problem solve and build a total communication approach for your client while being led by a group of AT consultants with different backgrounds and experiences.  Trial different access methods from switch scanning to head pointing and eye gaze and consider mounting for AAC access throughout the day. We will collaborate and review different total communication plans and options as a group and discuss potential data collection ideas to show progress and growth. Don’t miss out on this hands-on course to review, learn or explore the world of AAC. 

Clinicians often find that successful use of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) in schools involves more than evaluating and acquiring a device. Successful implementation requires a detailed analysis of how best to meet a student’s communication needs in various settings, while still honoring the student’s multimodal communication efforts. An implementation plan can greatly facilitate this process.

This session will offer teachers and SLPs an example of creating a comprehensive communication implementation plan. This plan, which has been piloted and revised over five years, was created to ensure that all steps, strategies, actions, and resources for successful AAC outcomes are documented and acknowledged across communication partners and settings. The form is based on current research and clinical best practices and weaves together concepts from Joy Zabala’s SETT Framework, The Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change, The Participation Model (Beukelman and Mirenda), and the Zone of Proximal Development. It also encourages evidenced-based practices including: Aided Language Stimulation, Communication Competencies (Janice Light), communication partner training, functions of communication (Janice Light), robust communication tools, core vocabulary, Descriptive Teaching Method (Gail Van Tatenhove), and debunking AAC Myths. Most importantly, this plan incorporates personal preferences and insights from the AAC user and familiar communication partners. This presentation will offer several case studies demonstrating how the thoughtful construction of an implementation plan can encourage evidence-based practices and support teams in identifying the routines needed to implement the AAC tool with success.

The purpose of this presentation is to share our team’s experience implementing both low and high tech AAC in our preschool classroom while providing a safe space for an open and honest discussion with attendees to learn from everyone in attendance. When our current preschool special education team came together two years ago, we were overwhelmed with the level of communication needs in the classroom. There were between 20-24 students in our district Early Childhood Special Education classrooms, and all were non- or minimally speaking. Every caregiver listed communication as their primary concern at an IEP. We were experiencing a significant increase and escalation in behaviors as a direct result of these communication concerns.  Our team knew that we needed a more comprehensive and robust approach to support communication, and we were overwhelmed thinking about how to move forward. We were intimidated by all of the ideas and information coming from seasoned professionals or experts at conference presentations, consultants, and every SLP/Early Childhood/ASD/parent account on Instagram telling us what we should (or shouldn’t) be doing to create the ideal communication-focused classroom. We decided to jump in, knowing that mistakes would be made as we continued to learn.        

With the support of our county’s assistive technology and ASD consultants, we determined which supports we would use (108-icon county-wide core board and speech generating devices) and decided to focus our efforts on these areas:
Training of all staff
Modeling without expectation across all classroom activities
Supporting and involving families

The presentation will go into detail about what each of those areas looked like for us and how moving forward to just get started impacted our classroom, students, and their families. In each area, participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts, experiences, and ideas with the expectation that no one is the “expert,” and we can all learn from each other.

The world of AAC is always changing and knowing what access methods, language apps and accessories out there can be a big job to navigate. Wouldn’t it be great to learn from a hands-on course to experience types of AAC from low-tech to high-tech, trial access methods and collaborate with team members from OTs to teachers and SLPs? Through this hour and a half course small teams will be given four real-life case scenarios and explore over 25 different AAC devices from robust low-tech systems to high-tech devices. Case scenarios include preschool to high school students with complex communication needs and a range of access methods.  Problem solve and build a total communication approach for your client while being led by a group of AT consultants with different backgrounds and experiences.  Trial different access methods from switch scanning to head pointing and eye gaze and consider mounting for AAC access throughout the day. We will collaborate and review different total communication plans and options as a group and discuss potential data collection ideas to show progress and growth. Don’t miss out on this hands-on course to review, learn or explore the world of AAC. 

Early in my career supporting emergent communicators, I relied on the prompt hierarchy to guide me.  Unfortunately, the outcome was often students who were completely dependent upon me to show or tell them what to say. What I was doing wasn’t resulting in autonomous communication, which I knew was the goal, and  I needed to change. In this session we will explore the reasons why we rely on prompts when teaching AAC and how prompting can interfere with autonomous communication. We will also apply basic knowledge of prelinguistic skills (engagement, joint attention, motivation, etc.) and expressive language development to determine appropriate goals and strategies for emergent communicators. Finally we will discuss strategies to assist prompt dependent AAC users to reduce their reliance on prompts and begin to generate their own messages by choosing motivating, open ended, student led activities. 

Providing professional development and community engagement opportunities related to AAC centered around real-life experiences and neurodiversity affirming practices in the school setting fosters engagement, belonging, and inclusion.  This presentation is created to provide ideas for building capacity, challenging limiting beliefs, and creating meaningful relationships by collaborating with AAC users to share real-life AAC experiences with staff, students, and families with a goal to increase communication partner competency and capability.  This presentation will discuss incorporating AAC user perspectives when developing evidenced-based professional development opportunities for professional and paraprofessional staff. We will discuss the impact we’ve seen, shifting the perspective of “Speech-Language Pathologist as the expert on AAC” to acknowledging that the true experts are AAC users themselves. Mateo Moreno, an AAC user since the age of 4, in collaboration with Bre Hof and Jordan Murray, school-based speech-language pathologists and AAC consultants, will discuss the why. Mateo will share his perspective on why AAC users should play a big role in the conversations.   As the only AAC user growing up in his school district, he knows how important it is for learners to meet mentors and for peers to learn how to communicate with their friends who just happen to talk differently. His presentations serve as a springboard and help make the professional advice stick. Plus, educators see what’s possible when the entire team works together to support emergent AAC users. Bre and Jordan will outline the impact collaboration with Mateo has made on staff mindsets and the data we’ve seen as part of an ongoing journey to build an AAC community that supports each other in our rural setting.  

First written in 1995, revised in 2016, the Communication Bill of Rights is an important document created by the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons With Severe Disabilities (NJC), that outlines 15 fundamental rights for all communicators. While many professionals who support complex communicators, are familiar with these rights, how many AAC communicators are aware of the rights afforded them along with the  teams making decisions that impact them? How do we empower AAC users to self-advocate and AAC professionals to advocate for those who use AAC? 
Let’s take the Communication Bill of Rights off the wall and put it into practice. 
Initial results for those who use AAC were increased:

• Participation in social settings
• Engagement in the classroom
• Asking more questions to gain information
• Frequency and use of a variety of communicative functions
• Opportunities to develop meaningful skills and
• Happiness, joy, and connectedness. 

Professionals who support those who may benefit from AAC carry the power to influence others. We will discuss the many ways they can create change within their spheres of influence. Participants will be encouraged to identify their advocacy style and explore practical and promising ideas to use as they better the experience of the communicators they support.