![]() ![]() These AAC users describe a struggle with everything from the motor demands of forming speech, to finding the right words and then getting their mouths to say them. “My brain connects words better to my eyes and fingers than it does my mouth it takes less energy to more precisely say something using AAC or just sending a text than it does to say the same thing with mouth words.” We interviewed AAC users about their part-time AAC use.Ī common message from these autistic people is that AAC is easier for them than speech. Many autistic people embrace AAC as a way to have more effective communication than they can achieve with speech alone. The research literature is silent, however, on people who can speak but prefer AAC, such as some people with autism. These people use AAC to augment speech as much as to replace it. They may speak with their most familiar family and friends, but use AAC with strangers or when speech requires too much effort. Others are born with a lifelong disability, like cerebral palsy. The loss of speech can be gradual, and AAC may be slowly adopted on an as-needed basis. Some people acquire a speech disability with age or disease, like ALS or MS. Research on AAC has long recognized that many people require AAC even when they can speak. He wishes that his family understood that expressing himself with AAC is a success, not a failure. But his parents keep telling him that he can speak, therefore he should. Now that he has AAC, Daniel feels more understood. However, he has always struggled to share his ideas or describe his struggles with communication. He had extensive speech therapy as a child to ensure his speech could be understood by others. Daniel has always been described as verbal.
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