Reflective analysis of special education practices across grade levels and disability categories

Augmentive Communication

Many times a person is born with a condition that requires, or acquires the need for, augmentive communication. Due some form of deficit the individual is not able to communicate in a manner normally used to communicate. Due to this inability the individual may need some form of assistance to interact normally with others and express their ideas. This paper defines augmentive communication, and provides examples of how devices are used to enhance the communication abilities of students in special education classrooms.

Actually, every person uses this type of communication because verbal expressions are just a small part of actual communication. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASLHA, 2011) defines augmentive communication as "all forms of communication (other than oral speech) that are used to express thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas." The website says that this is includes all of the nonverbals people use to communicate every day. The ASLHA (2011) says that "We all use AAC when we make facial expressions or gestures, use symbols or pictures, or write." Since the very beginning of time people have felt the need to express themselves with means that were exclusive of speech. Cave drawings have been found that are thousands of years old, but they convey the types of animals hunted, the weapons used, and the daily lives of those depicted as clearly as if the person who drew them were telling the story right now. Without augmentive communication it would not be possible for anyone to truly deliver the thoughts they have because speech, in and of itself, is a very limited way to communicate.

Unfortunately, there are those who for some reason, do not have the ability to communicate with speech and nonverbal are also limited. The fact is that communication requires all of the forms of speech and nonverbal methods to be delivered effectively. At least this is commonly true for a person who has no impediments to speech. For those people that have some disability associated with their ability to communicate, there are augmentive communication devices which will assist them in their need to communicate. The ASLHA (2011) says that;

"Aided communication methods can range from paper and pencil to communication books or boards to devices that produce voice output (speech generating devices or SGD's) and/or written output. Electronic communication aids allow the user to use picture symbols, letters, and/or words and phrases to create messages."

Many times the assistive device that a student needs is as simple as some type of augmented text book, but often it is much more complicated than that. Most students need more than one method of enhanced communication device. This approach to augmented communication is called multi-modal communication (Burkhart, 2011).