-AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY-<br>Meaningful Exchanges for People with Autism

Do My Childen's or Student's Communication Challenges Make Her a Candidate for AAC?

The criteria below describe some of the indicators for AAC. Take a look at the list. Do any of these apply to your child or student? The presence of any one or combination of these conditions makes your child a good candidate for AAC. Does your child or student:

Have no speech?

Have delayed speech?

Have unintelligible speech?

Have a limited vocabulary (between one and twenty words)?

Appear to be deaf?

Use a word, phrase, or sentence once then never again?

Use speech only to ask for something highly desirable?

Use requesting words (e.g., I want) but not commenting words that are often abstractions, like "thirsty," "cold," or "the cookie tastes good"

Use language only by rote, repeating words or phrases she's heard (echolalia)?

Have difficulty making requests?

Have behaviors difficult to interpret?

Not respond to questions?

Have difficulty with short term memory?

Have difficulty initiating interactions?

Have difficulty interacting with others?

Communicate only about specific topics?

Become upset and frustrated for unknown reasons?

Become upset and frustrated for known, but seemingly irrational, reasons?

Communication is speech, body language, facial expressions, gestures, and written language or print. Communication can be expressive--i.e., what is said, mimed or written, or receptive--i.e., what we think about and understand when we experience communication in its many forms. If a person has limited or no functional speech or language (expressive communication skills), and limited or no comprehension (receptive communication skills), AAC can provide the appropriate supports to enhance communication. Communication is a primary behavior in human beings. We are born ready to give and receive information by gesture, sound, and touch. For this reason, the concept of readiness does not apply in the first simple and basic steps of AAC intervention. Of course, more complex AAC interventions involve being able to understand categories; others require basic literacy skills. In these cases, there may be some prerequisites. But it should never be assumed that a person with ASD does not possess those prerequisite skills. For example, there are people with ASD, even young children, who have precocious decoding skills for symbols, including text. These skills are often unknown to parents and practitioners and only emerge when opportunities with visual symbols, such as keyboards, word processing programs, and even pencil and paper are provided. So, the lesson here is try first and question later. A person is never not ready to give or receive communication. This book has a "zero exclusion" perspective: no individual with ASD, regardless of the difficulties with or even absence of communication, is excluded from consideration for AAC. In fact, any person with communication and participation challenges, even those without a diagnosis of ASD, can benefit from AAC tools and strategies.