Functional AAC Assessment And Intervention Strategies For Individuals With Severe Disabilities In Schools And Other Settings

Course overview

This online course highlights functional AAC assessment and intervention strategies that have been found to be highly useful in fostering communication, educational, and related skills in individuals with severe disabilities, including those described as beginning communicators. Limitations of standardized testing and viable alternatives consistent with the principles of authentic assessment will be reviewed. Emphasis will be placed on the use of integrated models of service delivery and ecologically valid, evidence-based procedures such as natural supports, embedded goals, discipline-free objectives, skill clusters, and discrepancy analysis. Considerations guiding program content, including the setting of goals, will be explored. A simple, ecologically valid planning tool that pulls all this together will be illustrated. Overarching themes of the presentation will be participation, membership and inclusion.