Integrating Augmentative Communication in the Classroom, Home and Community

Many students play the "helpless" card.  Children learn from a very early age that they can manipulate situations and people, some more easily than others.  Parents, teachers and peers alike can be lead to believe that a person really can't communicate a need or want.  They will guess and pantomime and jump through hoops to try and figure out what the student wants.  Sometimes they think it is a quicker, therefore better, idea to just give the person what they want rather than make them reach, figuratively or literally, for it themselves.  Augmentative communication, for some people, is a tool that can help them make their needs and wants knows.  They can share their knowledge and ask questions about school, friends and life in general.  IF they are taught how to use it properly and IF they try...
* Creating expectations of participation socially and academically at the start of the school year, semester, month or day can provide the student with guidance and goals as to all that they are capable of and what the expectations are for them.
* The student can report about how their day went and what expectations were met and what needs to be tackled the next day.
*  The student should be part of the expectation and goal planning.  This allows them to buy into the situation.
*  The device needs to have the vocabulary that is best suited to the situations and/or class the student will be in.  Overlays can be created that are specific to each situation.

The augmentative communication MUST be integrated into the IEP in order for the student to be provided with the needed equipment and to be trained in it's use.
*The use of the device should be written into the student's goals with clear directions of when, where, how and how often the device should be used for what activities in each class, general ed.

*The use of the augmentative device system at home and in the community is necessary in order for the student to experience continued successes in life outside of school.  With proper family and friend support the student can learn how to participate in the "real world" in the best way he is capable and to reap and enjoy life as anyone else does.  The system needs to be portable and needs to be used consistently for the student to gradually feel more comfortable using it.