10/03/2026
October is AAC Awareness Month, and we are celebrating all month long at Rocket City Speech Therapy! 🎉💬
Your child communicates in lots of ways every day. They use words, sounds, gestures, facial expressions, and pointing. Using all of those ways together is called multimodal communication, and every single one of them counts.
So what IS AAC? AAC stands for augmentative and alternative communication. It refers to the tools that support communication, and these tools come in low-tech, mid-tech, and high-tech options:
📋 Low-tech: picture boards, communication books, and printed core boards
🔘 Mid-tech: simple devices with buttons that play recorded messages
📱 High-tech: speech-generating devices and AAC apps on a tablet (lots of families call these "talkers")
If you've ever wondered whether AAC could help your child, you might have some of these questions too.
❓ Will AAC keep my child from learning to talk?
This worry makes so much sense, because you want to hear your child's voice. Research has not found that AAC stops children from developing speech. Many children actually say more once they have AAC, because communicating gets easier and less frustrating.
❓ Does my child have to be "ready" for AAC?
There's no test your child has to pass first. Children learn AAC the same way they learn spoken language, by seeing and hearing the people around them use it every day.
❓ Is AAC only for kids who don't talk at all?
AAC can help many children. That includes kids who have some words, kids whose speech is hard for others to understand, and kids whose words disappear when they're tired, upset, or overwhelmed.
❓ Can my child work on speech and use AAC at the same time?
Yes, absolutely! Speech and AAC can grow side by side, and your child's therapy goals can include both.
🏡 One easy way to help at home: When you talk to your child, tap a word on their device or point to it on their board as you say it. Try "more" at snack time or "go" at the park. Your child can simply watch, and that watching is how they learn.
📚 Want a sweet way to talk about AAC with your kiddo? Our owner, Melba Acey, MSP, CCC-SLP, wrote a picture book called Sadie Says, illustrated by Abbey Bryant! Sadie uses a communication device to talk, and she might look a lot like someone in your family. You can find it on Amazon!
Have questions about AAC for your child? Send us a message or call 256-384-4466 and we'd love to chat. And if you know a family who could use this, please share it with them! 💜
