A practical guide for families, teachers, speech-language pathologists, and anyone supporting a person who has difficulty speaking.
AAC supports communication when speech is difficult or unavailable.
AAC can include pictures, words, typing, gestures, and voice output.
AAC is for children and adults with many different communication needs.
Communication should remain available without being earned or tested.
AAC stands for augmentative and alternative communication. It includes tools and strategies that help a person communicate when speech is difficult, unreliable, or unavailable. AAC can include picture symbols, communication boards, typing, gestures, and speech-generating apps.
An AAC app is software that helps a person build and express messages using pictures, words, typing, and voice output. Some people use AAC all day, while others use it only in certain situations. The goal is not to replace speech; the goal is to make communication available whenever it is needed.
AAC can support children and adults with many different communication needs, including autistic and nonspeaking communicators, people with apraxia or speech delays, adults with aphasia after stroke, people with ALS or Parkinson's, and patients who temporarily cannot speak after surgery or during recovery.
A useful AAC app should make important messages easy to reach, support refusals and self-advocacy such as no, stop, help, and wait, allow vocabulary to grow over time, and work across everyday settings. It should also be easy for communication partners to model without turning communication into a test or compliance task.
Core vocabulary is a set of flexible words that can be used across many situations, such as I, want, more, go, help, not, and finished. These words help communicators build original messages instead of relying only on memorized phrases. A balanced AAC system can combine core words with personal and situation-specific vocabulary.
JennyTalk is a web-based AAC communication app that combines picture communication, type-to-speak, natural voice output, multilingual support, personalization, accessibility settings, and JennyPath practice and progress tools. It is designed for use across home, school, therapy, and community settings on the phone, tablet, or computer a person already has.
AAC for autism
Communication support for autistic and nonspeaking children.
Learn moreAAC for schools
AAC support for special education and classroom routines.
Learn moreAAC for SLPs
Tools and implementation support for speech-language pathologists.
Learn moreMultilingual AAC
AAC communication across home and school languages.
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