#aac communication

Pixies First book with adult aac users !

And !

PT: Going nonverbal is not a thing. End PT

I’m a part time AAC user due to verbal shutdowns. I use a high tech AAC device, text to speech apps, communication cards and a DIY letter board.

A lot of people like me, who experience verbal shutdowns incorrectly label themselves as “nonverbal”. This misuse of language actually harms the nonspeaking community, and speaks over their lived experience. Nonverbal and nonspeaking describe a full time, long term state of being unable to speak much or at all.

This is not the same as sometimes being usually able to speak, but experiencing verbal loss.

Now don’t get me wrong, if you’ve been using nonverbal to describe yourself for a long time, only to realize that word wasn’t for you, it can be a big change. Even I was quite resistant at first to change my use of language.

But this is important. Nonspeaking people are so often left out of conversations, and so rarely given chances to share their opinions. But the majority of the nonspeaking community has made it clear that this is not a word for people like me, and it’s important to listen to them.

If you’re struggling to find a correct term for temporary loss of speech, here are some alternatives ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Verbal loss

Verbal shutdown

Speaking break

(Episodic) Speech loss

Communication shutdown

Mom: my son can’t talk let me get this app so he can

Son: *talks*

Mom: no not like that

Like you don’t put duct tape on your kids mouth if they keep saying “Shut up,” you teach them not to use it. It is the SAME THING.

ALT TEXT FOR SCREEN READERS:

Heading: ratings and reviews

Title: inappropriate language

One star

December 28

Review: Our son is three and nonverbal, we downloaded this app to use as iPad as an AAC device. At first glance, it’s very user-friendly and our son picked up the layout quickly and was able to use this as a form of communication. The reason I would give it one star and quite frankly no stars if that was an option is because there’s no way to hide inappropriate language like “shut up“, which should not be accessible to a three year-old on top of other words that you cannot remove. When I reached out to support their response was they don’t feel like we should limit words to children, which I agree with but having my three-year-old constantly hit the shut up button during school is not appropriate and there’s no way to remove it so don’t waste your money just spend the money on a different app that lets you have access to editing words to make sure that your children don’t get in trouble because while language is extremely important and I don’t wanna limit, I also don’t want to have my child constantly scolded because an app thinks it’s OK for a three-year-old to use the word shut up. We will not be renewing our monthly subscription and will look for a more accessible app that supports positive language reinforcement.

Developer response:

January 6

I'm working on making the homepages of different AAC apps for the Animal Crossing tablet item! You can edit the tablet with customization kits to have a custom design, so you can put your AAC device in your home or around the island.

So far I have LAMP, Proloquo2Go, TD Snap Core First, and TouchChat done. I'll be adding more soon.

More programs are in!!!

My AAC plush!!!

Yes/no

Maybe/help

Hungry/thirsty