08/27/2024
Yes. This. 👍
At the beginning of the school year it can be tempting to print out “core boards” and sprinkle them like confetti around classrooms/ the school. New students are coming in with no communication system and it can be tempting to hand them out, Oprah-style - “you get a core board, and you get a core board,” and so on. While they are a useful support and a helpful place to start when you don’t have immediate access to something robust, they are not a robust AAC system. They often lack developmentally appropriate and motivating vocabulary and intrinsically lack voice output - a highly motivating feature in an AAC device.
I also see too many district Assistive Technology teams using core boards as a pre-requisite to obtaining robust AAC. No student should HAVE to use a core board for a variety of communicative functions while combining words before they are granted access to a trial of a high tech robust AAC system. AT teams need to DO BETTER. SLPs in these districts need to start advocating for EBP practices around AAC and start demanding that their students get access to high tech, ROBUST AAC systems.
