AAC Assessment

Assess your student, understand their environments, consider what they need and want to say, and finally choose the tools to help them!  Whether you are working with us to conduct the assessment, we are coaching you through the process, or you are doing it yourself, the process is essentially the same.  Starting with our DTA Schools process below and finishing with tools you can use yourself, we hope this page will help you acquire and develop the tools your student needs to help them communicate more effectively!

AAC Assessment With Our Team!

If our team is working with you to assess and support your student's communication needs, this is the process we go through with you. 

STEP ONE: Our evaluations begin with a referral from your IEP team.  Many districts complete a redetermination meeting, inform the families, and then send us a referral form.  First we want to hear from you, and the families!  How does your student communicate? What do they want to communicate about?  What do you hope comes from this assessment? We will request the IEP and any relevant evaluations and eligibility documents, vision and hearing results.

 STEP TWO: We will conduct trials looking at your student's language skills, verbal skills, and response to trials with AAC systems.  If you are already working with an AAC system, we may support you through coaching and problem solving, while YOU do the trials! Take a look at the sections below for ideas how to begin these assessments yourself!

STEP THREE: We will write up a lengthy AAC Assessment Report with several recommendations for you to consider. You will convene an IEP meeting including the family and all relevant team members to decide what you would like to do next.  If the family wants to pursue a funded communication device, many of our districts allow us to help with this process so the student will have a personally owned communication system.

STEP FOUR: You will let us know what the IEP team decides, and if you want us to assist with the funding process for an AAC system, we will get busy writing an SGD Evaluation Report, suitable for funding through insurance and Medicaid. The family will need to take the student to their physician and get visit notes indicating a discussion and agreement for a speech generating device. If a light tech communication book, board or symbol display is the choice, we can help you create these!

STEP FIVE: Regardless of the solution determined, an implementation plan needs to be developed!  We will meet with your team to share resources, decide who is doing what, and plan our goals for the student.  This is the MOST important step of the process! When the system arrives, we will help you customize it and implement it in your classroom!

Understanding Your Student's Communication Skills

take me there!

AAC Assessment Tools

let's go!

Funding a Device

Coming Soon!

Video Explainers!

Short videos to share tips as you are preparing your own AAC evaluations!

Prepping an AAC Evaluation:  The end of the school year push to complete AAC assessments was the impetus for this video! This week I was preparing to go see an elementary aged student who is currently an emergent communicator. Communicating primarily using his body, behaviors and facial expression, this little guy is ready for something more effective!

Using Classroom Goals Grid to Prep for AAC Assessment: This video gives you ideas for how to use the Classroom Communication Goals Grid to prepare for an AAC evaluation.​