That logic, or lack of it can apply to designing augmentative communication to met the needs of family and community. I have distinct memories of days that I did not adequately plan for my lessons, and anything that could go wrong did go wrong; and yet I probably still appeared shocked. When you take the time to plan it makes your job feel effortless. The goal of augmentative communication for a student with special needs is to make their communication feel effortless, and productive. Here are a few tips to make that a reality.
- Consider family functioning and cultural diversity in initial planning stages
- Parents, siblings, grandparents, extended family should all be considered in planning content.
- Parents need to be trained by school personnel; they will become trainers and "tech support" for all other family members on how to best use AC and have their child communicate successfully.
- To ease the process of communication in the community the device can be programmed to include statements that reflect the child's "voice". Examples "It is OK, to think I sound weird, I had to get use to it to". "Just ask me a questions like you would if this device wasn't here"; "please look at me when you talk to me, thanks"; "Feel free to finish my sentence if you think you understand where I am going - we will talk much faster that way". ; "don't worry, if you are wrong I will let you know!"
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