ABSTRACT
Voice output communication aids (VOCAs) have made much greater inclusion possible for children with communication difficulties – VOCAs are the hardware for communication. However, the hardware itself is a small part of the solution as children have to learn to use the aids in a variety of situations in the school setting, and, more importantly, school staff need to be flexible enough to adapt their own teaching methods and communication styles, so that the aids can be used to maximum effect in schools. VOCAs are an example of recent technology developed for use in alternat-
ive and augmentative communication (AAC). Signing and symbol boards are less high-tech examples. Children who use AAC are a diverse, and relatively rare group of learners, characterised by being largely non-verbal and needing aids to help them communicate. They may also have learning difficulties, or
physical impairments – where, for instance, their communication difficulties arise from cerebral palsy – or they may have both. The more complex their needs, the wider the range of solutions needed so that they can overcome barriers to communication, and so access the curriculum. However, learning to use AAC can be compared to learning a foreign language that is not used by anyone else in the community – including the therapists and teachers whose role it is to support the inclusion of children with communication difficulties. My daughter is an AAC user and I have had concerns about the quality
of the inclusive provision in our local primary school. My interest in this inquiry was initially prompted by a comment made by a speech therapist visiting my daughter’s school in 2006: ‘The modern classroom is not set up to encourage verbal communication.’ It later transpired that he was referring to the fact that equipment such as scissors and pencils were placed on the children’s tables and therefore did not need to be asked for. However, his comment alerted me to the need to investigate whether there was indeed some truth in this statement, and so, my focus in this inquiry was on the question, How can mainstream environments enable the inclusion of children with communication difficulties in a meaningful way?
