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of Contents Linda J. Burkhart Special Educator, Technology
Integration Specialist 6201 Candle Ct., Eldersburg, MD 21784
Typical children learn language by being immersed in language.
They spend the first year of life just listening to others
speak, before they make their first attempts to speak
themselves. They don't learn by simply repeating what they hear,
but rather they construct their thoughts into novel utterances
from experiences they have had with language. For children who
are unable to use speech effectively for communication,
augmentative communication strategies may be helpful to provide
a means of communication. Goossens', Crain and Elder introduced
the concept of aided language stimulation in 1992 in their book:
Engineering the Classroom Environment for Interactive Symbolic
Communication - An Emphasis on the Developmental Period, 18
Months to Five Years. In this strategy, others who talk to the
child use the same system that the chil