Question
Has there been research of social acceptance of using AAC in groups? I'm finding a very high rejection rate. There seems to be a social stigma.
Answer
I agree. However, with technology becoming more and more a part of our lives and a part of society, I think that perhaps AAC will have a more acceptable presence for people with aphasia. I think clinically if you were asking me about a specific clinical case, I would say maybe let the patient try it and see how successful he or she might be and allow them to experience how success feels. The patient may be swayed. I have seen similar responses when trying to teach gestures. I currently have a patient who was not willing to try gesturing. He only wanted to use his verbal speech output. But, you know, 6 months or so later, after watching his clinician model gestures and continue to encourage him to use gestures, he started to see the benefit of using gestures and how it was facilitating some of his speech as well. He kind of became a believer. So maybe that is one approach we can try to help counteract that social stigma.
This Ask the Expert was taken from the course entitled: Use of AAC Devices and Strategies for People with Aphasia presented by Sarah Wallace, Ph.D.
Visit the SpeechPathology.com eLearning Library to view all of our live, recorded, and text-based courses on a variety of topics.
Sarah E. Wallace, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at Duquesne University. Her teaching and research interests include cognitive and language challenges of adults with acquired disorders and their use of AAC.
