Module 6: Meeting the challenges of using AAC in the classroom
Creating AAC boxes: e-learning course
Start
In this module, you'll discover some of the challenges you may encounter in implementing AAC tools in your classrooms. The aim of this module is to give you practical tools to meet these challenges, and to be as close as possible to children who need AAC communication tools to find a path to self-expression and independence. To communicate is to exist, it is to live. AAC is everyone's business!
- To do this, we'll start by identifying our common challenges.
- Then we'll find ways to facilitate peer interaction and social inclusion.
- We'll then suggest techniques for monitoring the effectiveness of AAC tools, gathering feedback and making necessary adaptations to AAC tools.
- And finally, tips on how to design and create effective tools for different needs.
Index
Monitoring techniques
Common challenges
Tips
Peer interaction
Self-assessment
01
Common challenges in using AAC tools
Resistance and limited engagement
This chapter is about understanding the value and usefulness of integrating AAC into your classrooms and dealing with resistance or limited engagement with colleagues.
You may face discourage from families and students.
As seen in the previous lessons, AAC tends to be misknown by professionals and parents who are not familiar with the method.
To ensure an accurate integration and to overcome any resistance, you need to make sure your team or the parents are well-informed and not biased by any false-beliefs.
A/ Integrating AAC within your team
In this section, we’ll not review all the beliefs that have been presented previously in Lesson 1. But we’ll assess how we can involve all the actors in such a project.
Tips
1. Inventory and information on AAC to counter false beliefs
Put your entire team around a table and give everyone post-it notes to answer questions such as:
- Who knows about AAC?
- Who has been trained, and what training?
- Who is already making tools?
Gather all these answers in a table and use it as a basis for your work.
2/ Work together on this model:
The Participation Model for Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Link
3/ Useful resources to watch as a team:
Info
See more
3/ Useful resources to watch as a team:
Info
Info
4/ Warnings
Just as having access to a piano does not make us a pianist, providing an AAC tool (no matter how adapted) is not enough to become an expert communicator.
Light and McNaughton described the key competencies to be developed in AAC:
- Language skills: know the language (vocabulary, grammar) and the AAC code used.
- Operational skills: knowing how to operate the AAC tool.
- Social skills: managing social interaction; know what to say (or not), when, with whom, where and how.
- Strategic skills: Ability to compensate for AAC limitations. It is important to note that the success of the AAC project will also be influenced by factors internal to the person (such as motivation, self-confidence, etc.), but also external factors such as the role of communication partners, support policies and practices, etc.
5/ Build an AAC team
To guarantee a thorough and coherent implementation of AAC within your institution, you can create an AAC team. Here are some tasks for which the team can be responsible for:
Info
Info
B/ Work closely with parents
Ensuring a cohesion between teachers and parents is a crucial point if we want to see young people progress. Introduce AAC at specific times of the day, such as mealtimes, games, or reading times. This will allow the child to understand that this tool is there to help him express himself at all times: The messages and methods of communication must be the same at school, at home, at sport, and in the young people's everyday environment:
Tips
Tips
Families are the pillars of the project. They are our allies, so our role is to get them on board with us. How can we reassure them?
10
How to build a daily life notebook
- Choose a notebook
- You can paste pictures of the day like a routine
- And striking images of the day: a special visit to a farm, a football match, cinema ticket...
- Paste an object of the day that you have kept with you
- Close to these pictures you will paste pictograms telling activities to make easier to understand and re-tell
- It is great to draw, decorate
- And take time to re-read this book and engage discussion around it
See more
11
02
Promoting peer interaction and social inclusion
Encouraging peer-to-peer communication with AAC, creative and inclusive group activities
In this chapter, we'll look at how to encourage peer-to-peer communication with AAC, and how to create creative and inclusive group activities.
12
1/ From a theoretical point of view
How can we raise awareness of difference?
- With stories translated into sign language or pictograms.
- The little story “AAC is magic” by Farrall and Helen Tainsh
AAC is Magic book is a simple tool explaining AAC to young kids.
- By organising a morning circle and use theatre and gesture to animate scenes of conflict resolution, requests, etc.
- Celebrate AAC by wearing the words on your body: create T-shirts, bags, earrings or shoes.
We feel it's important to start by raising awareness of difference, by arousing curiosity. Talking about difference helps reduce apprehension about reaching out to others.
When you know something, you're already half reassured.
13
2/ Why promote peer inclusion?
The idea here is not to transmit information, but social norms to influence behaviour. Everyone is an expert in their own experience and can therefore pass it on more easily to their peers.
The whole community needs to be a model. To this end, the community is trained in the AAC approach, which is designed to be participative and co-conductive. In concrete terms, peer educators are recruited on a voluntary basis, based on their motivation and experience, in order to:
- support without imposing
- involve and empower
So that here, we understand each other, respect each other and actively co-learn. This approach is beneficial for both AAC users and non-users.
14
3. AAC environment
A well-designed AAC environment encourages peer-to-peer modelling
It's not just the educators who model AAC, but also the environment. Since we're talking about communication here, we need to think carefully about the strategic locations where the various AAC tools will be set up. Users use tools naturally, they live them. The focus is on creating an environment conductive to interaction by encouraging alternative forms of language. Here we are trying to highlight inclusion and not just integration.
Integration involves inserting a person into an existing group, often asking them to adapt to the norms of that group.
While inclusion is about creating an environment where every individual, regardless of diversity, feels valued and respected. Inclusion aims to adapt the system to accommodate all people, rather than forcing them to adapt.
15
In summary, integration focuses on admission into a group, while inclusion focuses on accepting and valuing each individual within that group. Which means that all the environment try to adjust itself to all types of communication profiles by using AAC.
- Placing large TLA boards inside or outside the facility.
- Ensuring that all vocabulary is available in pictograms or signs in the right place: PODD for meals in the canteen, activity schedule with pictograms or visuals.
- Communication binders, life notebooks always located in the same precise place.
- Create habits and vigilance: are tools such as life books/PODDs within reach and ready to use?
- Use all the media in the classroom to arouse curiosity and highlight AAC.
Info
16
03
Techniques for monitoring the effectiveness of AAC tools
Gathering feedback and making necessary adaptations to AAC tools
Once the tools have been finalised and implemented in the classroom, we look for ways to ensure that they are working for the children. We look for a way to evaluate them so that they can evolve to meet the children's specific needs.
The more the material is used the more effective it is. When a child doesn’t use a material at all means that this material is not adapted or that the child is not trained to use it.
Here, you’ll find 3 relevant monitoring tools:
17
Laval University observation grid for non-verbal communication
The purpose of this Observation Grid is to support people in the family and friends of the children who express themselves using little or no verbal language, in the observation of their communication behaviours. This Observation Grid allows you to document exhaustively all the means used by the child to communicate.Over time, thanks in part to the use of this Observation Grid, adults can guide the child to gradually progress in communication skills to intentional communication, and will help them adopt new increasingly conventional communication behaviours.
Link
18
AAC Needs Assessment (EN)
This needs assessment can be completed as part of an initial AAC evaluation or as part of on-going assessment after AAC strategies and tools have been implemented.
- Draw up a checklist to ensure that all partners (family, school, external...) are well organised. Make sure they work hand in hand.
- Set clear and solid objectives that will be regularely evaluated quantitatively.
To measure goals achieved, only words, signs or AAC are allowed:
- % of attempts: Note each time the child tries to reach the goal (reaching, catching, crying and grunting count as incorrect)
- # of times in ___ minutes: Track the number of times the child reaches the goal over a certain number of minutes.
- Rubric scoring: With this type of data, you evaluate the child's use of AAC on a scale (e.g. from 1 to 5) according to how independently they use the system.
Example
Link
19
04
Tips for designing and creating effective AAC tools for diverse needs
We need to observe the children in order to respond to their specific needs. It's the children who guide us.
20
1/ Freeing up time
Freeing up time is the key to creating robust AAC tools
This requires working together and being efficient. It means that the AAC team needs supporting each other by creating a library of tools that can be used and adjusted to meet the needs of each child. The more you put together your resources the further you’ll be able to go.
Tools required:
- computer
- printer
- laminator
- scissors
21
Here are a few practical tips:
- Learn to work with robust pictogram software, here are few examples of websites:
- Boardmaker Getting Started,
- Grid3 Cenomy (FR)
- Mind Express 5
- Pictello
- Choose basic vocabulary: you can find lists on this website:
- Know the needs and specifications for making materials adapted to the size of children's hands and their movements.
- Joyfully design and prepare together, according to interests and age.
- Ask for everyone's help in making it happen.
- Suggest digital supports to diversify vocabulary, such as BrainPOP and TouchChat.
Links
22
2/ Stimulate the different senses
Ensure that the tools offer activities that cover all sensory needs (audio, visual, kinesthetic, taste, smell) to help each pupil with their difficulty. Some will be easier to implement than others, such as taste and smell (note that with people with autistic disorders, this can provoke disgust).
23
Precautions to avoid over-stimulation:
Be aware that children (with autistic disorder, for example) can be hypersensitive to noise and light. Working with the senses can cause them to be over-stimulated.
- We can set up a less brightly lit area, with a soothing light: indirect lights are ideal because you can choose the intensity of the bulb and they are protected by a lampshade.
- To reduce noise, children can be provided with noise-cancelling headphones.
If a child has a crisis because they have been over-stimulated, it would be a good idea to create a secure resource corner with a soft carpet, welcoming cushions, stuffed animals to touch to calm them down...
24
3. A 3-step lesson to encourage language development
- The teacher NAMES the image (without the determiner, so that the child can hear and isolate the vocabulary word precisely). They repeat the operation with 2-3 other images.
- The educator names one of the 3 words mentioned in the first step and asks the child to SHOW them (no need for the child to speak).
- The educator points to an image and says, “What's that?”. The child then NAMES the word.
25
Assessment
In this section, you will have the opportunity to test your acquired knowledge throughout the module. Get ready to challenge your skills and reinforce your learning as you move towards mastering the fundamental concepts of AAC.
1/5
2/5
3/5
4/5
5/5
Congratulations, you've completed the Plural Words course!
Classroom Communication Profile Grid
This grid enables to establish a diagnosis of the quality of communication within the class. Using markers on a scale of 1 to 7 that ranges from "consistently observed" to "not observed"
The photo is taken from an Instagram post by aacforall with a Time Timer with 4 minutes remaining. The 5-minutes mark indicate it is time to clean up with a Boardmaker icon. Next to the 0 is a Bordamaker icon for wash hands indicating that after 4 minutes have passed, everyone will be done cleaning and it will be time for wash hands.
Find trainers in your country
- France: makaton.fr, Oseo CAA, CAApables
- Switzerland: polyhandicap.ch, stephanejullien.caa@gmail.com/
- Belgium: comalso.be and caausette.com
Plural Words e-learning course: module 6
Plural Words
Created on March 13, 2025
Plural Words is a European project aimed at raising awareness about AAC and disseminating this method in early and primary schools for all children. Discover AAC and our Plural Words boxes in this e-learning course.
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Transcript
Module 6: Meeting the challenges of using AAC in the classroom
Creating AAC boxes: e-learning course
Start
In this module, you'll discover some of the challenges you may encounter in implementing AAC tools in your classrooms. The aim of this module is to give you practical tools to meet these challenges, and to be as close as possible to children who need AAC communication tools to find a path to self-expression and independence. To communicate is to exist, it is to live. AAC is everyone's business!
Index
Monitoring techniques
Common challenges
Tips
Peer interaction
Self-assessment
01
Common challenges in using AAC tools
Resistance and limited engagement
This chapter is about understanding the value and usefulness of integrating AAC into your classrooms and dealing with resistance or limited engagement with colleagues. You may face discourage from families and students. As seen in the previous lessons, AAC tends to be misknown by professionals and parents who are not familiar with the method.
To ensure an accurate integration and to overcome any resistance, you need to make sure your team or the parents are well-informed and not biased by any false-beliefs.
A/ Integrating AAC within your team
In this section, we’ll not review all the beliefs that have been presented previously in Lesson 1. But we’ll assess how we can involve all the actors in such a project.
Tips
1. Inventory and information on AAC to counter false beliefs
Put your entire team around a table and give everyone post-it notes to answer questions such as:
Gather all these answers in a table and use it as a basis for your work.
2/ Work together on this model:
The Participation Model for Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Link
3/ Useful resources to watch as a team:
Info
See more
3/ Useful resources to watch as a team:
Info
Info
4/ Warnings
Just as having access to a piano does not make us a pianist, providing an AAC tool (no matter how adapted) is not enough to become an expert communicator.
Light and McNaughton described the key competencies to be developed in AAC:
5/ Build an AAC team
To guarantee a thorough and coherent implementation of AAC within your institution, you can create an AAC team. Here are some tasks for which the team can be responsible for:
Info
Info
B/ Work closely with parents
Ensuring a cohesion between teachers and parents is a crucial point if we want to see young people progress. Introduce AAC at specific times of the day, such as mealtimes, games, or reading times. This will allow the child to understand that this tool is there to help him express himself at all times: The messages and methods of communication must be the same at school, at home, at sport, and in the young people's everyday environment:
Tips
Tips
Families are the pillars of the project. They are our allies, so our role is to get them on board with us. How can we reassure them?
10
How to build a daily life notebook
See more
11
02
Promoting peer interaction and social inclusion
Encouraging peer-to-peer communication with AAC, creative and inclusive group activities
In this chapter, we'll look at how to encourage peer-to-peer communication with AAC, and how to create creative and inclusive group activities.
12
1/ From a theoretical point of view
How can we raise awareness of difference?
We feel it's important to start by raising awareness of difference, by arousing curiosity. Talking about difference helps reduce apprehension about reaching out to others. When you know something, you're already half reassured.
13
2/ Why promote peer inclusion?
The idea here is not to transmit information, but social norms to influence behaviour. Everyone is an expert in their own experience and can therefore pass it on more easily to their peers. The whole community needs to be a model. To this end, the community is trained in the AAC approach, which is designed to be participative and co-conductive. In concrete terms, peer educators are recruited on a voluntary basis, based on their motivation and experience, in order to:
So that here, we understand each other, respect each other and actively co-learn. This approach is beneficial for both AAC users and non-users.
14
3. AAC environment
A well-designed AAC environment encourages peer-to-peer modelling
It's not just the educators who model AAC, but also the environment. Since we're talking about communication here, we need to think carefully about the strategic locations where the various AAC tools will be set up. Users use tools naturally, they live them. The focus is on creating an environment conductive to interaction by encouraging alternative forms of language. Here we are trying to highlight inclusion and not just integration. Integration involves inserting a person into an existing group, often asking them to adapt to the norms of that group. While inclusion is about creating an environment where every individual, regardless of diversity, feels valued and respected. Inclusion aims to adapt the system to accommodate all people, rather than forcing them to adapt.
15
In summary, integration focuses on admission into a group, while inclusion focuses on accepting and valuing each individual within that group. Which means that all the environment try to adjust itself to all types of communication profiles by using AAC.
Info
16
03
Techniques for monitoring the effectiveness of AAC tools
Gathering feedback and making necessary adaptations to AAC tools
Once the tools have been finalised and implemented in the classroom, we look for ways to ensure that they are working for the children. We look for a way to evaluate them so that they can evolve to meet the children's specific needs. The more the material is used the more effective it is. When a child doesn’t use a material at all means that this material is not adapted or that the child is not trained to use it. Here, you’ll find 3 relevant monitoring tools:
17
Laval University observation grid for non-verbal communication
The purpose of this Observation Grid is to support people in the family and friends of the children who express themselves using little or no verbal language, in the observation of their communication behaviours. This Observation Grid allows you to document exhaustively all the means used by the child to communicate.Over time, thanks in part to the use of this Observation Grid, adults can guide the child to gradually progress in communication skills to intentional communication, and will help them adopt new increasingly conventional communication behaviours.
Link
18
AAC Needs Assessment (EN)
This needs assessment can be completed as part of an initial AAC evaluation or as part of on-going assessment after AAC strategies and tools have been implemented.
To measure goals achieved, only words, signs or AAC are allowed:
Example
Link
19
04
Tips for designing and creating effective AAC tools for diverse needs
We need to observe the children in order to respond to their specific needs. It's the children who guide us.
20
1/ Freeing up time
Freeing up time is the key to creating robust AAC tools
This requires working together and being efficient. It means that the AAC team needs supporting each other by creating a library of tools that can be used and adjusted to meet the needs of each child. The more you put together your resources the further you’ll be able to go.
Tools required:
21
Here are a few practical tips:
Links
22
2/ Stimulate the different senses
Ensure that the tools offer activities that cover all sensory needs (audio, visual, kinesthetic, taste, smell) to help each pupil with their difficulty. Some will be easier to implement than others, such as taste and smell (note that with people with autistic disorders, this can provoke disgust).
23
Precautions to avoid over-stimulation:
Be aware that children (with autistic disorder, for example) can be hypersensitive to noise and light. Working with the senses can cause them to be over-stimulated.
- We can set up a less brightly lit area, with a soothing light: indirect lights are ideal because you can choose the intensity of the bulb and they are protected by a lampshade.
- To reduce noise, children can be provided with noise-cancelling headphones.
If a child has a crisis because they have been over-stimulated, it would be a good idea to create a secure resource corner with a soft carpet, welcoming cushions, stuffed animals to touch to calm them down...24
3. A 3-step lesson to encourage language development
25
Assessment
In this section, you will have the opportunity to test your acquired knowledge throughout the module. Get ready to challenge your skills and reinforce your learning as you move towards mastering the fundamental concepts of AAC.
1/5
2/5
3/5
4/5
5/5
Congratulations, you've completed the Plural Words course!
Classroom Communication Profile Grid
This grid enables to establish a diagnosis of the quality of communication within the class. Using markers on a scale of 1 to 7 that ranges from "consistently observed" to "not observed"
The photo is taken from an Instagram post by aacforall with a Time Timer with 4 minutes remaining. The 5-minutes mark indicate it is time to clean up with a Boardmaker icon. Next to the 0 is a Bordamaker icon for wash hands indicating that after 4 minutes have passed, everyone will be done cleaning and it will be time for wash hands.
Find trainers in your country