Where to begin?

This year, I have another opportunity to help a school district give their AAC program an extreme makeover. So what will my first steps be? 

This is, honestly, one of the most common questions I get. And with good reason! Building an AAC program is not an easy or a quick task, not even for those of us who are lucky enough to have some experience. There are some excellent deep-dive resources out there like the QIAT, or Chris Bugaj’s outstanding book on this subject. However, they’re super in-depth, and you might still struggle to prioritize all the many tasks on your plate.

I’ve tried many different ways over the years to capture what’s in my brain when I look at a new district, or when I am given a description of what someone else is working on (e.g. when SLPs and AAC Specialists ask me to coach them). I’ve created an overall program outline, products to help AAC specialists, several courses on the subject, and of course this entire blog. 

But I think I’ve finally cracked it! 

A Previous Idea...

Backing up a little: I have a simple formula (which I wrote about here) for how to provide effective AAC training for new communication partners. 

It goes like this: device + strategies + confidence. 

• Device: make sure to talk about the vocabulary layout (color coding, folders, left-to-right organization, etc.), and other basics like the “find word” function, guided access, volume, charging, etc. 

• Strategies: make sure to cover modeling, and how and when to appropriately prompt. 

• Confidence: help the person identify their next small step in the right direction, and reassure them that it’s okay to make mistakes! 

I realized that the most simplified version of what goes on in my brain as I prioritize next steps for a whole district, is just another formula. 

So imagine: you arrive at your new job as an AAC Specialist. You listen, and you gather information on the strengths of your program, as well as any barriers to AAC access. You meet your new team members and you observe in classrooms. Then once you have all of that, you brainstorm your first steps. 

Suppose you’ve come up with the following handful of ideas: 

1. Build a website for your AAC department

2. Print a bajillion core boards and distribute them

3. Make a new referral form 

4. Create a central place to store AAC vocabulary files

5. Hold a mass teacher and staff training

Any of these are probably worth your time. So how do you decide which is the most important?

... Turned Into a New Framework

To pick your next step, think: access + capacity + organization. 

• Access: Does this step help increase the number of students who have access to AAC? And/or, for those who are already AAC users: does it help increase all-day access, choices, and autonomy?

• Capacity: Does this step help increase the capacity of our team to support AAC users? Will it help parents, teachers, SLPs, and/or other related staff members? 

• Organization: Does this step help to increase our AAC team’s back-end organizational systems which keep everything running smoothly? (Or if you’re working alone, as so many of us must, “does this help me stay organized?”) 

You’ll notice that this framework closely follows the one I wrote about communication partners:

• Access to Devices is important. 

• We must build Capacity to use Strategies. 

• When we think about a new communication partner, they need Confidence, and for an AAC team to move forward confidently they must be Organized. 

For maximum efficiency, all you have to do is figure out which step hits as many of these points as possible. 

Putting it Together:

In the first two districts where I was an AAC specialist, I started by building a website. That’s because I had a large number of people to reach, at a large number of sites. Therefore, my most efficient first step was to improve access (to downloadable core boards), capacity (through strategy videos), and to do this in the most organized way possible (developing one central resource to send parents, teachers, SLPs, and staff). Then I went on to the next step, and the next, building AAC programs that would meet the needs of as many kids as I could. 

As I walked into my new school district, I found that a website would not be my best first step. I was only at two schools, so that meant I didn't need to reach as many people all at once. I could have more person-to-person conversations, and it was easier to organize staff training.

Instead, we really needed to address some back-end systems that were stopping kids and staff from being able to get school-provided devices (access + organization), and therefore also stopping staff from being able to learn about high-tech devices (capacity). Each step I take from here, I’ll be evaluating on the same framework. 

So there you have it: pick your next step by thinking about access + capacity + organization.

Further Reading:

If you need some ideas for next steps, check out this list of my last 10 blog posts, which will give you a guide to everything I would want my dream school district to know and use!

• A Better Way

• Ordinary & Necessary

• Every Child Who Needs AAC, Gets AAC

• High Expectations, High Technology

• Connection over Compliance

• The Ideal Preschool Classroom for AAC Users

• Literacy for All: AAC in K-12 Classrooms

• Prepared for Life: AAC in Adult Transition

• Neurodiverse-Affirming AAC Practice

• Should AAC Specialists Exist?

And if you'd like to hear me talk through this formula in a podcast form, please subscribe to the SLP Happy Hour podcast. I'll be episode #199, coming soon!