Post #9: The Future of Language Development in AAC
10/4/2016 4:20 PM
As AAC researchers interested in supporting language development, we have an obligation to objectively analyze and critique current AAC interventions and approaches. This is one way that we, as a field, can better understand where we are in terms of what we know now, and where we need to go next. The only way the AAC field can truly move forward is through a clear understanding of where we are now.
Predictably, all current AAC approaches – including the ones we examined in these posts and others we did not examine – have areas of strength and weakness. At this juncture, aided AAC intervention is full of compromises, given that language expression must pass through the bottleneck of technology. All approaches involve some trade-offs.
Our goals with these postings has been to highlight some of the broad trade-offs, for two important reasons. First, clinicians must make choices – hard choices – in selecting AAC options for preliterate children. For example, clinicians may, when taking any one approach, be faced with the impossible choice between supporting semantic growth or morphosyntax. As we discussed in our first post, young children develop all language domains simultaneously, and all domains are of prime importance. We see part of our role as making sure that clinicians fully understand the nature of these choices as they strive to provide the best possible language supports – that is, what may be gained with a particular approach, as well as what may be lost.
Second, we must fully acknowledge the gaps in our current approaches, not for the sake of touting one approach over another, but so that we can fill in remaining gaps. And we MUST fill in the gaps – systematically, and sometimes painfully slowly – so that we may all see the day when AAC options are available for all preliterate children that allow them to achieve their maximal linguistic potential. So – let’s all continue to work together in our mutual desire to make this dream a reality.
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