10 Strategies to Train Parents on Using AAC at Home

As a speech-language pathologist in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) since 2001, I’ve experienced working with different disciplines and in many different contexts. Many times, when I visit schools as an AAC consultant, school-based SLPs and other school staff report carryover in AAC from school to home as their biggest challenge in helping a student become a more independent communicator. Why is facilitating carryover such a challenge? I found one important factor to be parent or caregiver training. Often, SLPs and educators include parents in deciding what AAC system to use, but not in training and implementation. Various barriers make including parents in AAC training difficult—no time for staff to train parents, parents can’t come to school during the day, a language barrier, other scheduling issues and more. Without training, parents often feel overwhelmed or confused by the system and therefore don’t use it efficiently for communication. So, where can we as SLPs start to include and provide parents with AAC training and improve students’ carryover of device use at home? I’ve had success with these strategies: Starting parent training early! When evaluating preschoolers for AAC systems, I recommend parent trainings as part of my assessment. The unofficial training begins from the day that we first speak about their child and continues as the child begins to learn their AAC system. Even when the training ends, I stay in t...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Private Practice Schools Slider Speech-Language Pathology AAC Augmentative Alternative Communication autism Autism Spectrum Disorder Early Intervention Language Disorders Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs