Augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, is any tool or system beyond natural speech that supports or replaces spoken communication. Picture boards, core vocabulary boards, speech-generating devices, letterboards, typing, sign and gesture systems all count.

And the question most parents carry into it has a short answer. Using AAC won't take away your child's chance at speech. Dr. Catherine C. Acotto, PhD, CCC-SLP, puts it this way:

"AAC doesn't take away speech. AAC gives speech somewhere to land."

What makes AAC work at home isn't the device. It's reading what your child is already showing you around it.

What counts as AAC

AAC runs from low-tech to high-tech, and your child may use several at once:

• Low-tech: picture and symbol boards, communication books, choice boards, visual schedules, core vocabulary displays.
• Mid-tech: simple voice-output buttons and switches.
• High-tech: dedicated communication devices and tablet apps, including eye-gaze systems for children with motor challenges.

Sign and gesture count too. So does a phone photo of two choices held up side by side.

"Should we try everything else first?"

Many families are told to wait on AAC until other approaches have run their course. Dr. Acotto's answer is direct: AAC isn't a last resort. It's an access tool.

In her words, "When communication becomes successful, through any channel, the child's nervous system learns: 'My signals work. It's safe to keep trying.'"

That's why waiting until a child seems "ready" usually works backward. Using AAC is how the readiness gets built.

The device is the channel. Reading the signal is the skill.

Floortime, SCERTS, TEACCH, AAC and ABA all ask you to decide what your child's behavior means before you respond. None of them teach you how.

A device gives your child a way to send. It doesn't tell you what the look toward the board meant, or why the hand stopped halfway to the screen. That part is reading, and it happens before, during and after the device comes out.

Before: the signals that come first

Watch what your child does before touching anything. A glance at the board. A shift of the body toward it. A reach toward the thing they want, then toward the device. Each of those is your child communicating, and each deserves an answer.

During: what the touch is telling you

A touch near the right symbol is an attempt. Tapping the same button over and over can be exploration, and exploration is learning. A child who plays with the device is finding out what it does. Keep going.

After: what happens when the signal works

The moment after your child sends a signal is the one that teaches. When something happens right away, warmly, your child learns the lesson Dr. Acotto calls the most important one in communication: "My signals work. When I communicate, something happens."

The phrase to drop this week

"Say the word." "Use your words." "Tell me what you want."

Parents say these with love, usually because they want so badly to hear their child's voice. Dr. Acotto's book names what they can create: Signal Suppression™*. When a child has to produce a specific word before a need is met, communication starts to feel like a test, and some children send fewer signals.

Her rule is simple: "Communication isn't earned. Communication is supported." Meet the need first. Then build.

* Signal Suppression™ is the reduction or elimination of a child's signal attempts as a result of environments where communication has become a test rather than a tool.

One thing to start today

• Pick one word tied to something your child loves or does every day: MORE, HELP, GO or STOP.
• Use it yourself. Touch the symbol, or hold up the picture, as you say the word in a natural moment. Don't ask your child to copy you.
• Wait about ten seconds. Watch for anything: a look, a reach, a sound, a touch.
• Answer whatever comes. Any signal counts.

No device yet? Two printed pictures, or a phone photo of two choices, is enough to start. The channel matters less than doing it consistently.

For the speech question in full, read "Will my child ever speak?" For more parent questions about AAC, see the Silence to Signals FAQ.

Want something you can use tonight? Get the free Transition Signal Guide and see what to watch for before a transition breaks down.

New to this work? Start with the Silence to Signals™ Communication Framework and its six-stage SIGNAL Path, explained stage by stage.