These SIG 12 Perspectives articles offer opportunities to extend augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) clinical practice through the inclusion of critical topic areas. They describe survey results and recommendations on disaster preparedness for SLPs to support people who use AAC; propose strategies for clinicians to create a “friendship mindset” in AAC assessment and implementation; offer strategies for designing and implementing Visual Scene Displays (VSDs) as a component within AAC systems for clients across the lifespan; and describe how perspectives of adult part-time AAC communicators support assessment and intervention with beginning communicators who have intermittent, unreliable, and inconsistent speech.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• explain the SLP role, through planning, preparation, and practice, in supporting individuals who require AAC for communication and their families/caregivers to promote disaster preparedness
• define friendship and outline purposeful and proactive strategies to incorporate social interaction training into goals and maximize opportunities for practice for individuals who use AAC to communicate
• list benefits of Visual Scene Displays (VSDs) as a part of a multimodal communication system and identify key factors for the SLPs to consider when designing VSDs
• define intermittent, unreliable, and inconsistent speech as described by speaking autistic adults and describe how to assess and support part-time AAC strategies for pediatric clients

Assessment Type
Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

Articles in This Course

1. Augmentative and Alternative Communication Disaster Preparedness: Roles, Responsibilities, and Opportunities for Speech-Language Pathologists and Other Professionals by Miriam C. Boesch, Elizabeth Begley, Sarah Blackstone, and Tina Caswell, published in SIG 12, Volume 7, Issue 5, October 2022
2. Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Friendships: Considerations for Speech-Language Pathologists by Michelle Therrien, Zach Rossetti, and Jørn Østvik, published in SIG 12, Volume 8, Issue 1, February 2023
3. Visual Scene Displays for Children and Adults: Using Case Studies to Bridge Research and Clinical Practice by David J. Hajjar and Kathleen Mulkerin, published in SIG 12, Volume 8, Issue 2, April 2023
4. Perspectives of Part-Time Augmentative and Alternative Communication Use in Adults and Implications for Pediatric Service Delivery by Susan Marjorie Koerner, Sarah Glaser, and Kirsten Kropkowski, published in SIG 12, Volume 8, Issue 4, August 2023