Great overview, thankyou.
katie.marek@sa.gov.au - 4/19/2023
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TARGETS of an AAC Program
MDNevers
4/20/2017 2:52 AM
“Students initiate communication of their own thoughts and ideas by combining appropriate vocabulary to express messages for different purposes, people, places, and activities.”
Introduction
The first section of our framework is called “Targets”, and reflects recommended communication outcomes. These outcomes, commonly represented as IEP goals, drive every aspect of the AAC program. Goals specify what we hope our students will achieve, and guide our choice of instructional approaches and interventions. They impact our selection of AAC supports and dictate how progress is measured. In short, they represent the focus of our program and reflect a vision of our students’ future.
Within the realm of all possible communication goals, there are some that are critical to becoming a competent communicator. Below are five of the most important goals to consider as part of a comprehensive AAC program.
1 - Initiation
“Student will frequently act on their environment – say, move, touch, reach, push, etc. – to produce specific actions and reactions.”
First, we want to make sure that our students are initiating – acting on their environment based on their own thinking and ideas. The mental process we want them to carry is “I have an idea in my head, I produce some action (with my mouth, hands, body etc.), and there is a result”. When applied to a communication system, this may look like “I am thinking I want to go out (idea), I reach out and touch the word ‘go’ on my board (initiate movement), my mom takes me outside (result)’. Sometimes students have not yet learned that they can make things happen through their actions, so we need to create those experiences. Other times students have learned that when they have an idea they should wait for a prompt (e.g. “What do you want?”) instead of just acting on it. In the latter case, we need to remove those prompts and provide opportunities for the student to learn the new rule, which is “You have an idea, you act!”.
2 - Range of Functions
“Student communicates for a variety of purposes; is able to express a range of language functions.”
The concept of being able to communicate for a range of purposes is incredibly important. We all regularly use language to ask questions, make comments, engage in social exchanges, and share information. Yet when we identify goals and select vocabulary targets for our students, we tend to be much more restrictive in the functions we make available. Rather than look at models of typical language development for our purposes, we select functions that are easiest to teach or that we think are the most salient. This results in an imbalance in the types of messages the person can express, and creates extremely limited opportunities for communication interactions and experiences. We really want to make sure we provide access to vocabulary and instruction that incorporates the range of purposes or functions of language.
3 - Combining Vocabulary
“Student is working to increase the average length of their messages (expressed via symbols, gestures, signs, vocalizations) e.g. child at a single word level is working towards more two-word phrases.”
When we support students to move beyond the single word level we are not just combining individual words, we are also building concepts about the relationships between words. We are always working towards a “plus one” – taking their current phrase length and working to move it up to the next level. This applies to any form of communication – gesture, symbol, sign, speech etc. This is probably one of the most powerful goals because it also necessarily builds vocabulary and incorporates different parts of speech.
4 - Range of Vocabulary
“Student’s repertoire of words includes a range of parts of speech and types of words (e.g. general, more specific, very specific); student has a good breadth and depth of vocabulary."
We want to ensure that our students have access to the words they need to express the range of functions and to combine words (sections above). By incorporating both “core vocabulary” (most commonly used words) and “fringe vocabulary” (more specific vocabulary) we ensure that the student can achieve those goals. Luckily there is lots of great information available related to the concept of core vocabulary as an approach to vocabulary selection.
5 - Contexts
“Student is expanding the communication environments – new situations, new people, new locations, new activities...”
For our last priority goal area, we want to make sure that we teach students to apply their skills across people, places and activities. This forces us to teach in natural settings and to embed generalization opportunities into our instruction. We must target broad application of skills if we want our students to be communicating in many environments.
Closing
When I provide consultation to school teams, I will use these targets as a mental checklist to compare to the student’s existing goals. If I see that the IEP does not include these types of goals then I know that the student will not likely achieve meaningful communication outcomes. If I see that the IEP captures at least some of these areas then I know that we are likely in a good place for positive outcomes. I hope that these ideas will help to either confirm your team’s direction or give you ideas for how you might shift your focus for better results.
Stay tuned for our next post – the “TEACHING and TASKS” of our AAC framework!
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