AssistiveWare will attend the ASHA 2024 Convention
Join us at the premier annual professional education event for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists.
Bringing together approximately 15,000 attendees, the Convention provides unparalleled opportunities to hear the latest research and gain new skills and resources to advance your career.
Clinical and academic recognition of autistic adults who use both augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and speech has increased recently. This increase, along with the language describing the speech experiences behind this AAC use, are largely Autistic community sourced and driven. As practical familiarity with these terms is associated offering AAC and supporting AAC use for autistic people with these needs and experiences, this presentation will define, compare, and contrast the terms intermittent, unreliable, insufficient, and expensive speech. It will then discuss how these experiences can affect communication and how AAC can support people with these needs. As device funding is a concern, this presentation will also discuss how funding for part-time AAC users has been and can be achieved.
When and where: December 5, 2:00 PM - 3:00PM | Room: CC/Arch/Arch-3AB (Lvl 3)
Clinicians often struggle to find appropriate assessment tools to measure communication growth among emergent communicators, especially those who may need AAC. Traditional standardized assessments often fall short in capturing subtle skill development in early communicators. This can lead to ineffective goal setting and difficulty tracking meaningful progress.
This session will present several different open-source tools and strategies for assessing emergent communication skills. The common approach behind all these tools is capturing data from observational reports from multiple perspectives in the natural environment. This allows clinicians to triangulate evidence collected over time, partners, and contexts. Attendees will gain insights into selecting and utilizing assessment measures that accurately represent student learning, enabling them to develop more targeted goals and track progress effectively.
When and where: December 6, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM | Room: CC/Summit/Summit-437-439 (Lvl 4)
There has been recent progress in allowing therapy to be more neurodiversity-affirming and child-led. The Natural Language Acquisition method emphasizes modeling and following the child’s interests, with few-to-no direct trials. However, the expected outcome remains word by word generation of communication (spontaneous novel utterance generation) and has not traditionally addressed the continued use of scripts. To be truly neurodiversity-affirming, we must also support the continued use of scripts alongside the skill of word by word communication. In addition, there is significant conflicting information with minimal evidence regarding the application of these methods with AAC. This session considers the benefits and methods to support communication for Gestalt Language Processors who use or could benefit from AAC.
When and where: December 6, 12:00 PM - 13:00 PM | Room: CC/Arch/Arch-Ballroom 6C (Lvl 6)
Speech alone is not adequate for many autistic people. Indeed, autistic adults report communication challenges throughout childhood, yet never having access to AAC (Donaldson et al, 2021). Given these factors, school-based professionals may play a key role in access to communication for autistic students. The current study examined the knowledge, skills, and experience of school-based professionals related to autism and AAC, and how these may impact AAC use for autistic students. Employing a 35-item online survey, professionals were asked about their education and training, experience working with autistic students, and views on speech and AAC. Results indicated learning can change reported attitudes towards AAC access and there is a need for professional training and support related to autism and AAC.
When and where: December 6, 12:00 PM - 13:00 PM | Room: CC/Arch/Arch-Ballroom 6C (Lvl 6)
“The goal is not to create an echo, but to hear an authentic voice.”
“Communication defines who we are and how we relate to others. I want to help enable everyone to communicate and make a difference in the world.”
“We can do this! Together, we can make communication and self-determination accessible to every single person.”
“AAC is for everyone, mouth words are just for most people. Why isn't speech the 'alternative'?”
“I aspire to help my fellow AAC users say what's on their minds.”
