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Speech Pathology Australia: Speech Pathology in Schools Project
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supporting those who are in the educational
as well as care environment of children to
understand and use AAC modelling, including
using aided AAC as they are speaking with the
student, as part of naturalistic communication
interactions (ASHA).
Along with all the skills that typically developing
children are acquiring, students with CCN
need to learn different and additional skills. For
example, they may need to learn to recognise
symbols and understand what they represent,
or how to “repair” interactions when the person
they are talking with misinterprets their meaning,
or how and when to increase and decrease the
volume of their communication device, or when
to use gesture to greet someone, rather than
taking the time to generate speech output on a
device. Light’s Communication competencies
provide a useful framework to identify goals for
intervention to support children to participate
using AAC in the educational context. (Light &
McNaughton, 2014.)
If there is a language disorder, it is likely that the
development of literacy will also be affected.
Language and literacy skills do not develop
in isolation but over time and are dependent
on students’ skills as well as environmental
exposure and demands. Students with CCN
will often need or benefit from the same
interventions as children with speech sound
disorders or developmental language disorder,
as well as requiring specific and additional
supports due to the specific and additional
barriers they face to developing literacy. For
example, children who have limited or no speech
do not have the same ability to “sound out”
words, or even to match a letter with the motor
pattern associated with that sound. (Hetzroni,
2004: Millar, Light, & McNaughton, 2004).
Children with CCN may also have changed and
reduced experiences of shared book reading,
which can impact on their opportunities to
develop literacy. For example, it may be difficult
for them to request that a favourite book is read
repeatedly. They may not have been able to ask
questions, or make comments, or “pretend” to
read a book that they have memorised, have
limited opportunities to ask questions or practice
with books (Light & Kelford-Smith, 1993).
Research focusing on students with CCN
who use AAC has highlighted the discrepancy
between their cognitive abilities and predicted
literacy skills (Sandberg, 2006). Therefore,
it is critical that professionals who work
with students with CCN identify appropriate
AAC to promote literacy and to develop
effective strategies that foster acquisition of
skills necessary for literacy development. As
professionals with expertise in communication
and AAC, you as speech pathologists can play
an important and unique role in working with
teachers and other educational staff (as well
as the student and their family) to help embed
the use of AAC to support a student’s literacy
development (Sturm & Clendon, 2004; Hetzroni,
2004; Erickson, Koppenhaver, & Cunningham,
2006; Porter, 1997).
AAC users, who may not have the ability to
produce speech, face unique challenges in
the development of phonological awareness
skills. The development of literacy skills for
students who are AAC users can be even
more important, not only because it supports
their ability to generate novel and spontaneous
utterances using text, but also because it can
provide for access to new experiences, and may
be a critical skill to enable them to enter the job
market (Smith & Blischak, 1997).