Communication for everyone

Abstract

In his inaugural lecture, Mathijs Vervloed discusses the challenges involved in research on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in children with multiple disabilities. When speech fails and communication does not occur spontaneously, there are other ways to communicate. However, this requires providing support to both to the child and their communication partners. Communication supporting devices can help with that. The lecture is about choosing particular devices, how to deploy them and whether using them also leads to language. From an orthopedagogical perspective, the author examines the potential of AAC and the challenges present in the diagnosis and treatment of communication problems. He also discusses which language acquisition theories could assist in teaching AAC efficiently and how research on children with multiple disabilities can contribute to the theoretical understanding of language acquisition in children.