When Will (Maya’s younger brother, who is typically developing) came along, Maya was already an AAC user. He was exposed to her AAC use (and our modeling) from birth. I had spent a lot of time arguing with people online about how AAC use would not impede speech development . . . so when Will was 17 months old, I put my money where my mouth was and gave him an AAC device. Thus began a journey that we couldn’t have anticipated.
Watching Will become an AAC user:
- Taught me a lot about language acquisition (for a typical kid through an atypical medium)
- Provided Will with a way to communicate (wow, his language sure outpaced his ability to generate speech!)
- Allowed us to avoid most of the “toddler tantrums" (since he had a way to repair communication breakdowns)
- Fostered the development of an absolutely amazing sibling relationship with his sister, whose primary language was AAC.
Here’s a digest of links related to Will’s AAC use, and to AAC siblinghood:
AAC by 18 months: In which I talk about the importance of starting AAC young, introduce 17 month old Will to his new communication device, and share some video clips of what implementation with a toddler looks like (spoiler alert: It looks fun and silly!)
The Merits of AAC Exploration: In which I share a video that highlights some stuff Will can do with the talker. This is noteworthy because I wasn’t doing much (if any) modeling for him----but he was getting a ton of “free exploration/babble time” with the device.
AAC Sibling + Fantastic Search Feature = (Really Cute) Success: In which tiny Will is found using a search feature on his app (with video).
Ponderings on Icons, Text, and AAC, via a mini experiment: In which I discover that Will (age 2.5) already understands that text reads left-to-right, and that he is able to “read” and replicate icon pairs, due to his AAC immersion.
Conversation Repair at 2: Speech, Gestures, andAAC: In which I record a communication breakdown with Will, and he (beautifully) uses multiple modalities to share his message. I was able to get it by the end!
The Leap: AAC by 18 months, 3 years later: In which I discuss the fear that I had when I gave Will his talker (at age 17 months) and the language/speech/family outcomes of that decision.
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