ABSTRACT
The Hub and Spoke Model was introduced in 2014 in England to describe how Local services are to work with Regional Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) services. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have equivalent service delivery models for Local and Regional Specialised AAC Assessment Centres. Most formal Speech and Language assessments are not suitable for AAC users because they are only standardised for children or adults who do not have sensory, physical, cognitive or social communication impairments. The Computer-Based Accessible Receptive Language Assessment (CARLA) is designed for children with physical disabilities, and can be used with touchscreen, switches, head-mice or eye-gaze. The Psycholinguistic Assessments of Language Processing in Aphasia (PALPA) is a battery of psycholinguistic tests to assess auditory processing, semantics, grammar, reading and spelling. The Frenchay Screening Tool for AAC is a very useful resource including sections to assess physical access, visual acuity and processing, visual contrast, symbol- or text-identification and categorisation.
