girl puts her hand in a bag5th grade students were introduced to AAC, or Augmentative and Alternative Communication, to grow their understanding of communication disorders and devices. Students actively participated in exploring mystery bags, describing what they felt inside and making guesses about the items using only AAC devices to communicate!

AAC devices use speech-output to help individuals “speak” when they may have difficulty speaking on their own. Some devices or apps can store thousands of words to help a person “say” and have a conversation about their day or what they learned at school.

boy uses device with images to communicateStudents later reflected that using communication devices to speak took longer than using speech and it was difficult to say and express everything they wanted to.

Speech-Language Pathologists Mrs. McCloskey and Mrs. Goff encourage students (and you!) to say hello to someone using a communication device when you see them and be patient because sometimes it may take longer for them to respond.