What is AAC?

When a person has difficulty communicating with speech or writing, there are different ways of helping that person communicate.
Augmentative Communication (AAC) describes the ways of helping people with speech problems communicate more easily.

AAC includes many different strategies and methods, both aided and unaided.

Unaided Communication:

Unaided communication relies on just the user's body in order to communicate.
It doesn’t require any sort of external device or object.

Unaided communication can include:

• Gesture
• Facial expression
• Sign language
• Eye pointing (looking hard at a desired object or person)
• Body language

Aided Communication:

Aided Communication is when a person uses a physical object to help them communicate. It can include:

• Speech generating device (communication device/"talking" computer)
• Paper communication boards
• Pencil and paper
• Laser pointers (to point at a communication board)