Augmentative and alternative communication - support for people with severe speech disorders

Frequently, a child with severe disabilities is in an early stage of communication development, which is a disadvantage compared to the chronological age. Although the child may display a repertoire of some early communication behaviors, it is possible that because of the nature of the disability (motor, sensory, cognitive), the caring adults can not or do not know how to respond to these behaviors. Moreover, when adults try to respond, it may happen that their signals can not be interpreted by the child. As a result, the child can not acquire the necessary understanding that would enable him to make the cognitive leap from unintentional to intentional communication. In these situations, the most important is that the family or carers get advice from specialists to learn how to become aware of and respond to any of the child's attempts to communicate. Therefore, whenever a child's speech does not develop normally or he can not communicate effectively through speech due to pre-existing conditions, it is recommended for him to receive an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) support as soon as possible. Even when it can not be clearly established whether a child will ultimately develop normal speech (and often we are faced with this situation), it is better for him to learn an alternative communication system until the emergence of speech is observed. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.