About the Teaching AAC Project

The project was developed as a professional learning community with the involvement and input of speech and language pathologists and special education teachers from five school boards: Riverside School Board, Lester B. Pearson School Board, Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board, Eastern Townships School Board and English Montreal School Board. We saw the opportunity and need to develop a professional learning community surrounding teaching communication in our school boards. The focus of the project was to develop competency specifically for the integration of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in the special education or inclusive classroom. Please see the attached document for a detailed analysis of projected outcomes. Sharing of information and instructional practices between boards was key to the implementation of this project.

Teachers and speech and language pathologists participated in collaborative discussion, professional development and mutual classroom visits. Resources for the school were developed throughout the project, and some resources were purchased for the classrooms. Some of these resources included technology to produce AAC resources, and adapted literacy resources (books and games).

All classrooms received low-tech core communication boards for each student as part of this project. For examples of our core boards and other resources, please visit our resource pages.

We would like to acknowledge the guidance that Clifford Bowey School within the Ottawa Carleton District School Board provided for us to begin this project, specifically the speech and language pathologist, teachers and Principal. Thank you for your willingness to share your knowledge and resources with our boards.