Children with severe speech impairments: caregiver survey of AAC use

To obtain information from caregivers about their children's use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies and techniques, caregivers of children with severe speech impairments (SSI) followed at a pediatric rehabilitation center were surveyed (n = 110, 74% response rate). Twenty-eight percent of caregivers reported that their children used nonsymbolic expressions only because their children were “not ready” and/or were “working on skills” for aided AAC use. Caregivers of these children would change the way their children communicate by giving them normal speech, providing more services or by altering their children's AAC use. Thirty-two percent of caregivers reported their children used aided AAC. All of the aided AAC users reportedly used their systems at school and/or work, but less than 66% used their systems at home. Caregivers of these children would change their children's systems by making them more sophisticated, portable, or unbreakable. A small percentage (5%) of caregivers reported that their children used speech as their only mode of communication despite their severe speech impairments.