ABSTRACT
Communicating with less familiar communication partners is where Diego and his family need the most help in Getting Started to transfer successes into school and the community. Diego’s team considers what vocabulary he will need access to as they develop his augmentative and assistive communication (AAC) plan. Getting Started with communication activities is about awareness of communication in everyday events and routines and about adding to professionals already busy schedule. The activity pages include vocabulary recommendations. Vocabulary represented as images and words for an AAC communication boards are symbols of language, often called icons, that are printed on paper and used to represent objects and ideas. Teach the child to use and expand on communication modalities such as using a smile to make a choice. Learn to differentiate between a smile that represents a choice, a response to an internal state, and joy.
