As a virtual therapist using AAC, I find it imperative to choose the best program for each student to maintain their attention. This task becomes especially challenging when the students don’t have a physical device to follow along with during sessions. Bright, captivating colors and pictures definitely help captivate my little ones, but how can I ensure that they understand my virtual demonstrations? To support our students’ engagement, zooming in on a button selection and adjusting their vocal tone have had an incredible impact, especially for those with visual and attention deficits.

Considering I spend my day on a computer, I am quite comfortable experimenting with technology. At the beginning of this school year, I found myself running out of ideas on how to model AAC use to my students if they couldn't follow along with me. Between multiple cameras, screens, devices, and print-outs, I tested every means I could think of. Although I managed to share my iPad/AAC screen directly to Zoom, students still had to follow my mouse or watch me physically select buttons. Unfortunately, camera quality and WIFI issues often distorted my small AAC buttons! Additionally, many students have vision impairments! There had to be a better way to model AAC virtually.

Zoom on Selection

This is when I was introduced to AVAZ. Their word distribution is simple and easy to explain to students, and editing buttons is a breeze (using WIFI to download images!). But, the best part of all is that when a button is selected, it almost jumps out of its spot with a Ken Burns Effect! This means that students with vision deficits or even attention deficits will have an easier time following along on the AAC even if I can’t be there with them in person to model. Quite frankly, even if I were in person, I think this special feature would still have a massive impact!

Vocal Tone

Now I have a wonderful way to engage my younger students, but how can I help a pre-teen or an older student get excited to try out AAC? What will it take to encourage a student who has gotten by all these years without AAC to consider using one to supplement their communication? That’s where my second favorite AVAZ feature comes in: vocal tone! AVAZ provides eight different tones to enhance communication and make it more realistic to both the listener and the speaker. Users can select from the following: chat (a general happy vocal tone), angry, excited, question, sad, sarcastic, scared, and whisper. A nice plus is that these tones are described by emojis, which are not just easy for teens to understand but also for adults! Now, rather than sounding monotone and robotic, students can provide additional, subliminal and pragmatic meaning to what they want to say just by adjusting HOW it is said. They could even whisper in class or sarcastically respond back when they’re annoyed just like any other student would—that is what makes AVAZ special.

As a therapist, this is how I can get students on board, even virtually! Using AAC doesn’t mean they need to sacrifice their personalities, and when they use it the way they might use their phones, suddenly an AAC device is not so different after all. We like to think only kids worry about the perception AAC may give off to others, but parents and adult AAC users have all had these questions. These concerns are valid, but as technology improves and becomes more integrated into our daily lives, AAC users can enjoy the same joys of communication that anyone else can.

‍