04/10/2025
🗓️ October is AAC Awareness Month!
✅ What is AAC?
AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. It includes all the ways someone might communicate when they can’t rely on speech alone.
Augmentative: Adds to existing speech (e.g., gestures, pictures) and may be used to support speech
Alternative: Replaces speech when someone cannot speak.
AAC can be:
✋ Signs & gestures
📃 Symbols & picture boards
💬 Communication devices & apps
🧠 And even facial expressions or eye gaze!
AAC can be:
Unaided (no tools needed — like sign language)
Aided (uses tools — like pictures, communication boards and apps, etc.)
✅Why is Makaton considered AAC?
Because it:
⭐️ Supports people who have speech, language, or communication difficulties.
⭐️ Offers alternative ways for people to express themselves when speech is limited.
⭐️ Combines signs, symbols, and speech to enhance understanding and expression and can add a visual to support verbal.
Makaton helps people with communication difficulties express themselves, connect with others, and participate in the world around them. It also supports understanding and can add more meaning to what is being communicated.
Whether it’s one form or a combination of a whole system of tools, AAC empowers people in so many different ways.
Let’s raise awareness, celebrate AAC and AAC users, and build a world where everyone is understood. 🫶
