Communication Success Stories
What is Successful AAC communication?
Real communication is the expression of one's heart and mind. We communicate to express our needs, desires, thoughts, and humor, to ask questions and learn about the world around us, to engage with others. Real communication occurs when we have the ability to say what we want to say when we want to say it. It is the combination of access to a multitude of words, gestures, facial expressions, and vocalizations. Communication should not be limited by others' predictions of what we might want to say. The desire to communicate comes from the fact that it makes our lives easier, more enjoyable, and more rewarding.
We will be introducing to you several individuals with autism, who are using AAC to communicate and develop their language skills. They are in different stages of learning but all are on their way to becoming independent, spontaneous communicators.
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Max's Story
When 9-year-old Max rides around his home town with his mom Theresa, he enjoys helping with directions. "On Salem, off Salem, turn College. Turn left. Go straight. "He'll read each and every street sign on the way. He tells us where he wants to go. We joke that instead of a Tom-Tom GPS we have our own Max-Max," Theresa says.
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Isaiah Finds his 'Voice'
While speech therapist Sarah Allen has records denoting certain goals achieved while working with autistic 8-year-old Isaiah, like the increasing frequency with which he's sought out augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), more important to her -- and harder to measure objectively -- is how often his intent is successfully communicated.
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Not if, but how... our AAC success story
My son received his AAC just about a year ago. It is hard to imagine our life with out it now. Wyatt took to his "talker" immediately. He quickly learned how to ask for his needs and wants, and we were thrilled. Our non verbal, visually impaired son, living with autism finally had a voice.
