Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)

By creating a feature matching chart or decision tree, the Special Education teacher meets criteria for the ISTE Educator Standard 2.0: Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning. This standard includes engagement with education stakeholders during the IEP case conference to advocate for equitable access for students with exceptionalities. The goal of the Feature Matching Chart is to model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation, and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning (2(c)). The chart ensures that IEP team members systematically consider and review all AAC options before making a decision. In order to curate digital resources, we must become familiar with each option by first thoroughly exploring the tools available through physical trial (consider borrowing tools from PATINS Lending Library) or by exploring features digitally using each product website.

The ISTE Student Standard 6.0 is demonstrated in the AAC app decision tree: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. It is important that teachers remain open-minded and explore AAC options that best fit the needs of the student. While a student who is nonverbal may not be able to "choose the appropriate platform and tools" (Standard 6(a)) it is important the the IEP team guide the student's selection by presenting a range of options to the stakeholders and exploring which technology best suits the individual student's needs. Where a student may struggle to produce intelligible and clear speech, AAC allows the student to be clearly understand by their communication partner, resulting in improved social inclusion and better quality of life (Creer et al., 2016). 

Exploring AAC options demonstrates the InTASC standard 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways. This standard is applied by actively teaching students to prepare for an emergency through roleplay, social stories, and making meaningful connections with emergency services. This is further demonstrated through Standard 8(q): the teacher values the variety of ways people communicate and encourages learners to develop and use multiple forms of communication. By preparing students with complex communication needs with a Go Bag that includes low and high-tech AAC as well as printed text and a voice-recording, the teacher ensures that the learner is protected and prepared. In doing so, the teacher demonstrates their value of accepting all communication forms, helping the student to make as many successful communication attempts as possible.