AAC
Any way of communicating that supplements or replaces speech — signs, picture cards, a speech-generating app on a tablet. Introduced properly it tends to increase speech rather than replace it.
Why AAC matters.
The fear almost every parent raises is that giving a child a device will stop them talking. The evidence points the other way: children given a reliable way to be understood generally speak more, not less, because communication starts working for them.
What matters more than the system chosen is whether every adult around the child actually uses it. An AAC device that lives in a bag between therapy sessions is not a communication system, it is a purchase.
Questions that get a real answer
- Who is going to train the school staff, and when?
- What happens to the device over the summer holiday?
- How will we know in eight weeks whether this is working?
- What does my child do when the battery dies?
Ask these of anyone, including us. What you are listening for is not the right answer — it is whether the answer is specific enough to be wrong.
Terms that usually turn up alongside it.
ABA
A framework for teaching skills by breaking them into steps, prompting, reinforcing and measuring. Widely
GlossaryAccess arrangements
Adjustments a school makes so a child can show what they know — extra time, a reader, a separate room. They
GlossaryADEK
The authority regulating schools in Abu Dhabi emirate, including Al Ain and the Al Dhafra region. It
Send it to us and we'll translate it.
Any report, from any provider, including ones we have nothing to do with. We will tell you in plain English what it says, what it recommends, and which parts are actually supported by the evidence in it. No charge, and it does not make you a client.