Holistic Approach to Physical Motor Access Assessment in Pediatric AAC

Clinicians in the fields of occupational therapy and speech-language pathology have been involved with assessing children with physical disabilities for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for decades. Still, assessment for these particular children, with their varying levels of complexity, continues to offer significant challenges to clinical evaluation teams. Even when the speech-language pathology intervention seems clear, complications arise and assessments can become stalled as to the child's physical access to the technology. This paper seeks to identify the need for clinicians skilled in the areas of AAC and assistive technology, and review the inherent challenges faced in the assessment of a child with a physical disability for AAC. An introduction to a holistic approach to the physical access assessment portion of the overall AAC assessment is then provided, along with examples where the application of a holistic approach may affect the physical access decisions made by the team.