Students with severe communication impairment can use technology in the form of speech generating devices (SGDs) to help develop expressive communication skills and participate in curriculum programs. Communication is critical to a student's development both personally and educationally and the successful integration of a SGD into the school's curriculum program will have a profound impact on educational outcomes for that student.
With so many devices currently available the choice is enormous and the selection of a device needs to be based on a number of factors including the student's cognitive level of functioning, language ability and communication needs, physical skills and accessing constraints and visual and auditory perceptual skills. Other factors such ashuman and other resources also need to be taken into consideration.
The long term needs of students in terms of future educational and life goals must also be considered.
Speech generating devices are available for loan to all Education Queensland facilities and Education Queensland specialist support staff including:
·occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists or physiotherapists.
Input from a speech language pathologist and an occupational therapist is recommended for these loans.
For information about the range of SGDs currently available to trial please view the DSSU Online Loans Catalogue. Select AAC as the category and then use the drop down arrow to view the range of specific devices available to trial. Once you have selected a device to view select go.
