Augmentative Communication and ALS: A conversation with John Costello

John Costello, MA, is the director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Augmentative Communication Program. Costello has been a speech-language pathologist specializing in the area of Augmentative and Alternative Communication at Boston Children’s Hospital for 30 years. He works with children who are non-speaking or whose speech is severely impaired. For the past six years, Costello has also been working after hours and on weekends with adult patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Now, thanks to the partnership of a private donor, Boston Children’s Hospital is transforming Costello’s efforts on behalf of the ALS community into a formal program — the Augmentative Communications Service for People with ALS at Boston Children’s Hospital. Costello sits down with Thriving to discuss his work with children and how it expanded to giving people with ALS a voice. Thriving: What is augmentative communication, and what role does it serve with patients at Boston Children’s? Costello: Augmentative communication looks at supplementing or replacing speech when someone is unable to speak. The Augmentative Communication Program at Boston Children’s has existed for nearly than 40 years. Our team is made up of speech-language pathologists as well as occupational therapists with an assistive technology background. Being a pediatric center, our mission has primarily been to work with children of all ages with complex communication needs. ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Q&A ALS Augmentative communication John Costello Source Type: news