Assistive Technology Project for Education

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Hit the Pause Button on AAC


IMAGE VIA PRAACTICAL AAC

During mid-October many of our schools will have a Fall Break. This is a much-needed break for many of our teachers, SLP’s, and families who’ve been juggling school changes, paperwork, meetings, and lesson planning. Just as we need a BREAK or PAUSE from the hectic schedule to give us time to regain our momentum, our AAC users also need PAUSES.

For our students using some form of AAC, these PAUSES do not last a week but just a few minutes. Many of our students with speech and language challenges struggle with processing information quickly. Slowing down and adding a PAUSE allows the student to take the time to process the question or request and to respond without feeling pressured.

 

How does a PAUSE work in a therapy session?

  • Present your information/question to your student and wait…then wait some more.

  • Provide eye contact to encourage engagement.

  • If you feel you need to provide a cue, provide a verbal model

  • Or you can ask an open-ended question and wait.

 

A study by Hilary Johanna Mathis entitled “The effect of pause time upon the communicative interactions of young people who use augmentative and alternative communication”, suggests that a PAUSE time of up to 45 seconds supports more conversational turns and more words produced.  For an example on how to implement PAUSING follow this link https://youtu.be/BaCjpah8Btw

 

It is when we Pause and Wait that our students show us some of their best communication!