Resources to Support the Complex Communication Needs (CCN) Population
Complex Communication Needs (CCN)
Children and youth with complex communication needs (CCN) benefit from assistive technology and augmentative and alternative communication to support communication and language development. Students who have complex communication needs are unable to communicate effectively using speech alone. They and their communication partners may benefit from using alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) methods, either temporarily or permanently.
AAC systems of communication do not rely on speech. Children and youth who require AAC may have some speech but not enough to meet their daily needs. AAC systems may be used to augment existing communication skills or provide an alternative to speech.
These resources are intended to provide professional learning for professionals working with children and youth in the complex communication needs population.
How to use communication signal inventory to assess & plan intervention for early communicators
Children and adults with disabilities use a wide variety of behaviors that are interpreted by listeners as meaningful, many of which are not necessarily produced intentionally even by symbolic communicators. For early communicators that rely heavily on these partner-perceived communication behaviors, it is necessary to have a strategy to record and interpret possible meanings associated with these behaviors so that partners can respond similarly across activities and settings. A communication signal inventory (CSI) is a simple tool that creates an ongoing record of the individual’s signals and context produced, possible interpreted meanings, and planned partner responses to those behaviors, that can be used for anyone from very basic communicators through multiword symbolic communicators. A CSI can be one of the most powerful tools for both assessing communication and developing an intervention plan for basic communicators and it can incorporate a wide variety of communication modalities and strategies in both signals and partner responses. This webinar presents strategies for creating a CSI, categories of possible partner responses that enhance different aspects of communication, and video examples of CSI application for children with disabilities.
Length: 105:33