Augmentative and alternative communication

AAC provision for children and young people in England

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• 40 ‐ 60% of people with learning disabilities also have communication difficulties. This means they are likely users
  of low tech AAC such as signs and symbols (Mencap).
• Landmark international research in 1999 indicated that 0.4 ‐0.6% of the population need AAC (Augmentative
  Communication News)
• 0.05% of children and young people in the UK need high technology AAC. This means aids that enable people to
  make choices and create messages using pictures, symbols, words or letters that can be linked to an electronic
  voice. That’s an estimated 6,200 children and young people in England.
• The annual cost of providing communication aids to every child or young person in England who needs one is in
  the order of £6.5 million. The benefits can be huge and result in an increase in the numbers of economically
  productive adults.
• If even one in ten children provided with aids and associated services were as a result able to enter permanent
  employment, this would realise estimated benefits of £310m to the economy over those individuals’ working
  lives.
• International research has indicated that nearly one third of all AAC equipment is abandoned if there is
  inadequate expertise to assess and identify the right equipment, or insufficient support available in its use.
• Recent research in one local area, shows that numbers of young people aged 15‐19 with severe or complex needs
  increased by 70% over the decade 1998‐2008.2
• The 2008 Bercow Report highlighted that ‘children and young people who require augmentative and alternative
  communication aids (AAC) face a particular struggle to have their needs met under the current commissioning
  arrangements’. The review found no consistent system (locally, regionally or nationally) for ensuring that those
  who need communication aids receive them.

Key findings: from Jean Gross, Communication Champion

• One in five (22%) of the areas visited did not have in their area a speech and language therapist with specialist
  expertise in AAC, or had a specialist but without sufficient time allocated to assess and support AAC users.
• Where a specialist speech and language therapist existed, the post had in one instance been under threat
  because of local need for efficiency savings, and was felt likely to be under threat in several other speech and
  language therapy services.
• Speech and language therapists, whose advice is central to appropriate provision of AAC, typically receive 6‐10
  hours of relevant training (for adults and children) in their four‐year degree course.
• 27% of the speech and language therapy managers interviewed reported problems with securing funding for aids,
  once an assessment had recommended that one be supplied. In these areas, multiple applications to charities
  often had to be made by professionals, or parents had to fundraise to buy an aid themselves.

Recommended resources for Communication and Enablement Technologies:

• Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Voice Products and Technologies
• Local Service Provision Of Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Communication Aids In England
• Quality Standard for AAC Services
• ASHA
• Growing Up With AAC
• AAC Institute
• Association of Assistive Technology ACT Programs
• International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication
• National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons With Severe Disabilities (NJC) Communication Bill of Rights
• Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America
• Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication Enhancement

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