CHOOSING ALTERNATIVE AND AUGMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The triad of symptoms seen in autism, comprising impaired social skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, and stereotypical behaviors, may be severe enough to have a debilitating effect on a child’s life which disturbs the child psychosocial behavior. This study discusses the usage of a low tech alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) system chosen for one such child (referred to as F.S.), having profound speech and language difficulties that interfered with her everyday communication, and hindered her participation in educational and social activities. AAC is one of the most recommendable and highly reliable tools to assess the children disability and the burden caused by it. AAC is a method of communication that utilizes all available modalities to help individuals with severe expressive language deficits. This AAC method was a (modified) picture exchange communication system (PECS), to maximize her current skills and introduce others.