AAC Treatment Essentials Online Course
Neurodiversity-affirming support for your clients who are AAC users
Feeling lost and ineffective?
Over the last 2 decades, the cost of high-tech AAC devices has greatly decreased, making this life-changing technology available to more clients than ever. Even though SLPs usually learn about AAC in grad school, we usually graduate with limited knowledge in functional strategies for AAC implementation. Oftentimes, SLPs have misinformation about AAC, which leads to client frustration, caregivers who are confused, and SLPs who feel under-supported and ineffective.
Oftentimes, AAC courses are focused on only one device, system, or app with too narrow of a scope to support busy SLPs who work with clients who use a variety of systems or apps. SLPs tend to get stuck in analytic thinking when it comes to AAC, not knowing how to change AAC to meet their client’s needs.
AAC for all!
North Star’s SLPs came together with these problems in mind. We believe that AAC is for all and that any client can access high-tech AAC given the right therapeutic supports. We wanted to create a cost- and time-effective training for SLPs to improve their functional AAC knowledge. Six North Star AAC-specialized SLPs came together to create our AAC Treatment Essentials Online Course!
This course includes 3.5 hours of AAC course content. We’ll start with core tenets and pillars of AAC with a focus on providing neurodiversity-affirming supports. The course continues with information on feature matching, personalization, instructional strategies, and accommodations for clients with various diagnoses including vision loss, cortical visual impairment (CVI), hearing loss, autism, and sensory differences.
North Star’s SLPs complete over 100 speech-generating device (SGD) evaluations every year and work with AAC users and their caregivers every day. We utilize effective AAC treatment strategies day-in and day-out. We have seen how effective AAC users can be when their devices are individualized to meet their unique needs. And we want to share all of these techniques with you!
This course is ideal for SLPs who work with developmentally disabled client across the lifespan. The AAC Treatment Essentials Course includes 3.5 hours of on-demand video trainings with strategies for feature matching, setting up the right profile for your client, utilizing robust vocabulary, accommodations for clients with various diagnoses, and AAC for autistic individuals.