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Assistive Technology Network

4 Ps of AAC – Educator Edition

Present – AAC System is PRESENT

  • Do ALL students have access to functional communication?
  • Does the student have access to personalized AAC supports at all times?
    • Travel within the classroom?
    • Travel throughout the school building?
    • Travel between home and school?
  • Are there classroom communication supports available?
    • Do these symbols match the symbols on the student’s AAC?
  • Are low-tech supports available and taught?
  • Is there a back-up system available? (Low or high-tech option if the primary system Is unavailable)

Personalized – AAC system is PERSONALIZED

  • Is it easily evident who the AAC belongs to?
  • Does the student have access to a robust communication system?
    • Core vocabulary
    • Personally-relevant fringe vocabulary
    • Quick-fire, pre-stored messages
    • Access to the alphabet / keyboard and
    • word-prediction
    • Grammatical markers
  • Is the AAC system feature-matched?
    • Symbol type, linguistic features, voice, access, method, visual display, editing, portability, positioning, operational features

Persistent – Communication partner is PERSISTENT

  • Is consistent modeling on the AAC system taking place?
    • Aided Language Stimulation
    • Descriptive Teaching
    • Peer Modeling
  • Is core vocabulary targeted and included in lesson plans?
  • Are AAC supports utilized during all instruction and activities throughout the day?
  • Have staff members received training?
  • Have family/caregivers received training?

Patient – Communication partner is PATIENT

  • Is sufficient wait time provided during all communication exchanges?
  • Are all communication attempts (in any modality) honored?
  • Is a least-to-most prompting hierarchy being used?
    • Wait time between prompts
    • Avoid hand-over-hand prompts
    • Honor the individual’s decision to not respond

For more information, contact Melanie Derry at derrym@vcu.edu

Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitative Research and Training Center’s Autism Center for Excellence (VCU-RRTC-ACE) is funded by the VA Dept. of Education, contract number # 881-APE61184-H173A220112.