Today is Autistic Speaking day, 11:23pm at the start of writting this post, and I am tired, not, in fact because it is so late. though im sure that plays some part, I am always pretty tired on Nov 1st being the day after Samhain, which is a major event in which i spend weeks pour all my spoons, So i rarely have many spoons to put into posting a good post. or figure out what to talk about, i could discuss the need for better cases, the greater need for over all aac access and tools in public places, the need for teaching emotions better with AAC i could go on and on about the need for more representation of AAC users with in the AAC community but i think i want to talk about 2 things maybe 3 and by talk about them i think for tonight i mean mention them with plans to flush them out more later if i remember two.
the first is something that i see all the time all year, and that is the need foir earlier introductipon to AAC and more public knowledge of what AAC even is, it happens at least 6 times or more a month a parent mentions in a group im in their child is speech delayed, has unreliable speech or is entirely non speaking., and I ask if they have started AAC yet. 9 out of 10 times i get a no and on a rare occasion i get "we tried they were not interested," (which sounding like the parent had given up ion AAC all together i try to find a way to encourage them to not give up because its so so critical to never give up) all to often even with kids ages as old as 9, 10 and 15 i have met parents who have never heard of AAC, or who have bee discouraged from AAC or told to wait or want to wait, we need to change this! we need to start making AAC a first priority, communication aacess and sensory supports should be a top priority.
the other topic i want to discuss is the critical need for more AAC user representation, I remember when speechless came out i was inlive because JJ was a real AAC user, and he was a real person treated like a real person, not some plot device or a thing to motivate the speaking non disabled people in the show. there was so much that meant to me. but that was only one show, and yeah it was far from perfect but a huge step. Here is the thing though AAC acceptance month just wrapped up and still the majority of the voices in that seem to be parents SLPs and AAC orgs, all important voices but we need to shift to making the primaryh voices of AAC thing AAC users themselves! all AAC programs should highlight users and make 98% of their surveys and work around AAC user feed back, with SLPs parents and teachers and app staff being second,
third we need a lot more resources for adults starting out with using AAC, all the resources are geared toward kids, and we need resources for helping kids but we need ones for adults just starting out with AAC for whatever reason they are using AAC. Now when I say rresources geared towards adults i dont mean you need to make them boring, we like to have fun too! we like music and games and books ect! but even changing wording for modeling for kids, to activities you can do to work on aac and ways to get to know your device! fun games! ect
anyways sorry this is worded a mess im tired and this is chunky and such but i did want to get something out on Autistic speaking day
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