UPDATE 11/5/21: We have turned this blog post into an expanded resource on our website. Check it out HERE!

Welcome back to Let's Talk AAC - a series of questions and topics for discussion that we hope will be another useful resource. NWACS will occasionally post a question or topic along with some related information. We hope that you will join in the conversation by adding your experiences, resources, related research, etc. in comments so that we can all learn and benefit from each other's knowledge and experience.

We frequently see variations of our next question in SLP/AAC social media groups:

What tool(s) do you use to assess [description of an individual with intellectual/developmental disabilities and complex communication needs]?

Here is a list of FREE tools that may be helpful when evaluating early/emerging communicators with complex communication needs (stay tuned for part 2 with a list of paid tools). We encourage you to explore and judge for yourself which to add to your toolbox.

• AAC Assessment Planning Tool (APT) - The APT is a menu of suggested AAC assessment tools based on the individual’s current level of communicative independence [more information, including link to an episode on Talking With Tech podcast featuring the APT, read our New Discoveries post]

• Assessment of Learning Process (ALP) for AAC - “The Assessment of Learning Process (ALP) for AAC (2017) is a framework for assessing how individuals learn to use AAC devices.”

• Communication Matrix ; also check out Using the Communication Matrix Creatively – The Communication Matrix is a “free assessment tool to help families and professionals easily understand the communication status, progress, and unique needs of anyone functioning at the early stages of communication or using forms of communication other than speaking or writing.” Note: Starting in 2021 there is a small fee after your first 5 uses in a 12-month period. See more about the fee structure here.)

• Communication Supports Inventory – Children & Youth (CSI-CY) – Consisting of a survey and a report, the CSI-CY is “a tool to help professionals working with students with complex communication needs make educational plans that are comprehensive enough to capture their strengths and restrictions. The CSI-CY is designed to make goal writing easier for teachers and speech-language pathologists who work with students who are augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users or potential users. By itself, it is not an assessment, but rather a guide to organize the professional’s understanding of the impact of a student’s communication strengths and limitations on their participation at school and home.”

• Continuum of Language Expression (COLE) – Interactive COLE; COLE Chart – The COLE is a tool to evaluate early language development [for more information about the COLE listen to this Talking With Tech podcast episode]

• Communication Sampling & Analysis (CSA) - CSA is a tool for sampling and analyzing communication behavior in natural interactions; it is designed for infants, toddlers, and children with multiple physical, sensory, speech, and cognitive/linguistic challenges.

• Communication Signal Inventory (CSI) – a “dictionary” of a child’s communicative signals, what they mean, and how communication partners should respond

• Dynamic AAC Goals Grid 2 (DAGG-2) – DAGG-2 is a tool that provides a systematic means to assess (and reassess) an individual’s current skills in AAC and to assist partners in developing a comprehensive, long-reaching plan for enhancing the AAC user’s communicative independence. This tool strives to assist with the team’s consideration of the myriad of components that make for successful AAC use.

• Family Impact of Assistive Technology Scale for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (FIATS-AAC) – FIATS-AAC is a parent-report questionnaire designed to detect functional change associated with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions for children and youth, ages 3 to 18 years, and their families. It has 13 dimensions to measure overall and domain-specific functioning associated with AAC system use.

• Feature Matching Checklist - After gathering information about the individual’s sensory, motor, and communication needs, use this checklist to help determine the features needed in an AAC system (free download from https://talcaac.com/ (from the Links & Downloads link)

• Index of Augmented Speech Comprehensibility in Children (I-ASSC) - “a non‐standardized clinical measure to determine single‐word speech comprehensibility in children (Dowden, 1997). This tool can be useful in resolving “team conflicts about speech versus alternative strategies” and can “demonstrate the benefit of speech‐supplementation strategies for some children...” (p. 48). This is a free download from https://talcaac.com/ and is adapted from: Dowden, P. (1997). Augmentative and alternative communication decisions making for children with severely unintelligible speech. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 13, 48‐58.

• Pragmatics Profile for People who use AAC - a tool to collect information about a person’s reasons to communicate and their ability to participate in interactions and describe a person’s functional communication skills

• QUAD Profile: Checklists for Profiling Language Samples – QUAD is an analysis tool that allows you to take a sample of language and compare it against a set of checklists. The checklists look at four levels of language: vocabulary, morphology, syntax, function.

• Responsiveness of an AAC Outcome Measure: Clinical Case Report Form – form to record a client’s communication competencies, training history, and AAC technologies to track changes at three times over the first ~12 weeks a client has an AAC system

• The Bridge School offers a variety of links to useful tools for documenting present levels of performance (and assessment). Worth checking out (be sure to take a look at the All About Me Inventory)!

• The SETT Framework - The SETT Framework is a tool that supports teams in gathering and organizing information for a thorough assistive technology assessment and guides decision-making for intervention.

• Tool for Analysis of Language and Communication (TALC) - a language sampling tool for multimodal communicators; this is a free download from https://talcaac.com/ (from the Links & Downloads link)

Vicki Clarke (SLP) has written several informative articles on the PrAACtical AAC website regarding AAC assessments. They are worth checking out!

Do you know of other assessment resources/tools? What do you use when evaluating emerging/early communicators (of any age)?

Related articles: