Kristen Hughes & Amy Kennedy: Building a Collaborative AAC Framework in Schools to Streamline Selection, Support, and Success

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Kristen Hughes and Amy Kennedy! Kristen and Amy both work for Baldwin County Public Schools; Kristen as a speech-language pathologist and Amy as a special education resource consultant. Kristen is also a parent of a six-year-old son who uses AAC. Kristen is transitioning into a new role as an AAC specialist within her school district, and she wanted to ask Chris more about the Specific Language System First approach, leveraging collaboration, refining selection processes, and supporting educators with resources and training.

Before the interview, Chris shares experiences from a recent classroom lesson that unexpectedly turned into a broader discussion about fostering AAC culture for a whole school!

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Collaborative Decision-Making for AAC Selection: Kristen and Amy, along with Chris, emphasize a structured, team-based approach to selecting AAC tools. Instead of relying solely on a single expert’s choice, they suggest involving a full team—including teachers, parents, and relevant therapists—to determine the best AAC solution for each student. This approach helps foster shared ownership of the decision, ensuring consistent implementation and increased buy-in from all parties.

🔑 Efficient AAC Implementation Process: The team explores the idea of moving away from lengthy “trial” periods in favor of setting up a solid decision-making framework that defines criteria for selecting AAC tools based on specific student needs. By doing this, they aim to streamline the AAC selection and implementation process, helping reduce delays and allowing students to start benefiting from the tools more quickly.

🔑 Increased Support and Training for Educators: Recognizing time and comfort with AAC as barriers, they discuss the importance of training and support for teachers. Implementing consistent resources, like core boards and training on specific AAC tools, would empower teachers to integrate these tools more naturally in the classroom, reducing abandonment and ensuring AAC devices are used effectively.

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