Aided communication

Also called Aided AAC

Any communication that uses something outside the body, from a card in a pocket to a computer driven by the eyes.

What it is

Aided communication is communication that uses a tool. A photograph you point at, a laminated board, a book of symbols, a pen and paper, a tablet app, a dedicated device that speaks. If the person needs an object to say it, it is aided.

Aided is the half of AAC that most people picture when they hear the word, and it splits again into low-tech, which needs no power, and high-tech, which does.

Who it can help

Anyone who needs to be understood by people who don't know their signs. That is the core advantage: a symbol board or a talking device speaks a language every listener already knows. It also helps people whose motor control makes signing hard, and people who need a permanent visual record of what was said, which many autistic people and people with a learning disability find easier to process than fleeting speech.

The cost is that the aid has to be there. A device left in the bag, a book left at school, a board on the wrong side of the room, and the person is silenced. Aided communication is only as good as the habit of keeping it within reach.

How it works

Every aided system has three parts, whatever the technology. A set of symbols (pictures, words, letters) that stand for things; a layout that puts them somewhere findable (vocabulary organisation); and an access method, the physical means of choosing one: a finger, a fist, an eye, a switch, or a partner reading the person's yes and no.

Output is the fourth part. A paper board relies on the partner reading what is pointed at. A speech-generating device says it aloud, which means the person can talk to someone across the room, or someone who is not looking.

Getting started

Put something aided in the person's hands this week. The Talk board runs free in a browser on any phone or tablet, with 308 symbol cards and two keyboards, and needs no account. Or print a core board from a free resource and laminate it.

Then use it yourself, in front of the person, to say ordinary things. Modelling is what teaches the aid; nobody learns a board by being handed it.

Sort out where it lives. A lanyard, a strap on the wheelchair, a Velcro square on the table: the aid is only a voice if it is always within arm's reach, and low-tech backup on paper means it never entirely disappears.

Where to get help

Communication Matters is the UK hub for aided AAC. ACE Centre and CALL Scotland publish free printable boards and guides. The NHS route is a speech and language therapist, and where needs are complex a specialised AAC service assesses and provides equipment free.