Children love reading books. It’s also a great way to develop children’s language skills. What’s more, using an AAC system (Augmentative and Alternative communication) while you read, is a great way to use that communication system in a fun and shared activity.
There’s so much to talk about when you read books. First of all, there’s the words of the story. But don’t feel you have to read every word. You can simplify the story or talk about the pictures.
Also, it’s not just the words in the book that encourage language, the act of reading does too. Think about all the words you use when you read with your child. You ‘open’ the book and ‘close’ it, you ‘turn’ the pages, and you ‘look’ at all the pictures inside. You can talk about whether you “like” the book, and whether you want to “read more”.
In these videos, I talk about how you can use AAC, while you read with your child. I’m using a program called, Proloquo2go, which is a communication app for the iPad. But of course, you can read a book using whichever communication system your child is learning. I’m reading the books “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” and “That’s Not My Puppy”. I’ve found that children are really interested in books like these. There’s also lots of repetition, which is great because that means we can practice the same words over and over.
I hope these videos give you some ideas of ways you can read with your child, while also using your child’s communication system.
Dr. Liora Ballin
Speech pathologist
