Recast: Kathy Howery: Understanding the Lived Experiences of AAC Users

This week, we share a “Recast” of Chris’s interview with Kathy Howery! “Recast” episodes are episodes from the early days of Talking with Tech (with improved audio) that share important ideas Chris and Rachel want to highlight! Kathy is an AAC specialist, researcher, and educational consultant from Alberta, Canada who emphasizes the importance of understanding the lived experiences of AAC users from their perspective. She also shares about how therapy practices can improve by focusing on the personal, emotional, and social aspects of AAC use, and why AAC users should be provided with multiple communication modalities to better demonstrate their intelligence and capability!

Before the interview, Chris, Rachel, and the previous host of TWT, Lucas Stuber discuss the lived experience of AAC users and the importance of being empathetic and supportive in our therapy.

Key Ideas This Episode:

🔑 It’s not just about knowing how AAC devices work cognitively or intellectually - we need to do everything we can to understand what it feels like to use these devices and how they impact social interactions.

🔑 Kathy highlights the importance of developing empathetic practices, including challenging our preconceptions and being open to AAC users' personal experiences and perspectives. The aim is to foster a more compassionate and understanding approach when interacting with AAC users.

🔑 AAC users often use multiple modalities to communicate, including gestures, facial expressions, and body language, just like non-AAC users do. She also notes that an AAC user’s delay in responding can affect some interactions, and she stresses the importance of providing AAC users with various means of communication to ensure they are perceived as capable and intelligent.

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