Conditional Use of Aided and Unaided AAC

Individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities often have severe communication impairment and are therefore candidates for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). For these individuals, successful communication across a range of situations, settings, and communicative partners may depend on their type or mode of AAC. An aided AAC mode may be more effective under some circumstances, whereas an unaided mode may be more effective under other circumstances. This situation suggests the need to develop conditional use of multiple modes of AAC and to teach individuals when to use each mode. In this article we examine aspects of multimodal AAC and review instructional strategies for developing conditional use of aided and unaided AAC. This is followed by a case study involving an adolescent boy with developmental disability who acquired conditional use of aided and unaided AAC based on the presence or absence of an aided device. Results suggest that careful programming during intervention may promote conditional use of multiple modes of AAC.