What do we do?
The AAC team provides consultation as required to all of the other teams within the Children’s Speech and Language Therapy service, to support with ensuring that patients with limited or no vocal communication have other means of communication available.
Where do we work?
We work in a variety of settings including patients’ homes, mainstream and special schools, nurseries, hospitals and community clinics.
What to expect?
Establishing an effective Augmentative and Alternative Communication system is a dynamic process which can take a long time, and requires collaboration between our team, the patient, and their regular communication partners. This may include parents/carers, other family members, staff at any childcare, educational and/or care settings they attend. The first appointment typically includes information gathering discussions with these communication partners, and informal assessment through observing and interacting with the child or young person in one or more of their regular settings. The clinician will then discuss the assessment findings so far with the parents/carers and key staff (e.g. allocated 1:1 support assistant, class teacher, nursery keyworker, etc.) and typically agree a plan to trial one or more forms of AAC, embedded into their daily interactions. In some cases, the child or young person’s responses can lead to a change of plan being required, e.g. trying a different approach or resource. In other cases, the child or young person might quickly indicate that we’ve found a good option for them and their personalised system can be developed further as their skills and confidence in using their new mode of communication increase.
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