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The National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities has recent policy documents stressing the importance of providing communication services and supports, including AAC, based on individual needs rather than restrictive eligibility criteria. We are writing because we are concerned that the article in the May 25 issue of The ASHA Leader titled "AAC in the Schools: Moving Students Along a Communication Continuum" may be misleading. The article suggests that all students should move along a proscribed communication continuum. It implies that students have to successfully master certain prerequisite skills before the team provides an AAC device. It also implies that only one kind of device may be needed.
Making such a recommendation misrepresents the knowledge base about prerequisites to language development and AAC regarding eligibility for communication services and supports. Given the range of AAC options on the market, there is no currently accepted evidence in the literature that certain skills are prerequisite for successful use of AAC in the broadest sense. We encourage speech-language pathologists to review the ASHA position on this issue and to use the extant data and literature to guide their decisions about service delivery.
The National Joint Committee is an interdisciplinary committee, representing eight professional organizations whose mission is to promote research, demonstration, and educational efforts, including both inservice and preservice, directed to helping persons with severe disabilities communicate effectively. Visit the NJC pages for information about the committee and its representative organizations, contacts, documents, and FAQs.
MaryAnn Romski, AAMR
Nancy Brady, ASHA
Mary Hunt-Berg, ASHA
Lee McLean, Chair, CEC
Billy Ogletree, CEC-DCDD
Beth Mineo Mollica, RESNA
Rose Sevcik, USSAAC
Ellin Siegel, TASH
Marti Snell, TASH
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