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Awards: Power of Possibility

Anne Marie Renzoni, Tracy Shepherd and Nahum Sloan

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Project: Meeting the challenge: Online course for new professional staff at communication clinics establishes a training standard for Ontario.

For a child who is not able to speak and who may have multiple challenges, providing a communication system is a complex process requiring specialized knowledge and a strong team approach. For clinicians in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), they face these challenges head on.

A clinical team in AAC consists of a speech language pathologist, a communication disorders assistant, an occupational therapist and an assistive technology consultant.

Unfortunately, AAC is an area of clinical practice not well covered in formalized academic programs for Occupational Therapists and Speech-Language Pathologists. Consequently, clinicians have to turn to learning on the job rather than learning from experts and pre-existing literature on the subject. In Ontario today, there are approximately 260 staff working at communications clinics and ongoing turnover.

Anne Marie, Tracy and Nahum realized that having a core knowledge base across clinical and technical AAC team members would promote a strong team approach that would ultimately create cohesive clinical services for children and youth.

Motivated by very positive feedback from colleagues, clinicians and government groups who were anxious to establish a training standard, Anne Marie, Tracy and Nahum piloted the first ever course covering AAC practice in Canada. The on-line course was self-directed and could be completed anywhere to accommodate strict time restraints and distance challenges that affect AAC professionals.

The overall feedback was very positive. One participant said, “Overall, I found this course very useful and informative. I feel that it accelerated my learning development in a number of areas.”

Following the initial implementation, the Assistive Devices Program Peer Review Team mandated that all new clinicians complete the on-line course. To date, the course has provided a common ground for new staff working in communication clinics. In the future, this great innovation will continue to build a community of learners in augmentative communication clinical practice in Ontario.

Congratulations Anne Marie, Tracy and Nahum!

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Video (Windows Media Video file)

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