Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Description of the Strategy

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is an area of educational and research practice focused on improving, either temporarily or permanently, the communication skills of individuals with little or no functional speech or handwriting ability. Because one AAC technique will never meet all of a person's communication needs, most individuals who rely on AAC use a combination of techniques, depending on the situation or communication partner; this approach is typically referred to as multimodal communication. The collection of techniques a person uses is referred to as his or her AAC system.

The most essential component of AAC systems is the symbols used to represent messages. A symbol is something that stands for or represents something else (the referent). Symbols can ...