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The Autism Little Learners Podcast
#163: You Want to Model AAC, but Don't Know How to Get Your Team On Board
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What if the reason AAC feels so heavy in your classroom isn't because you're doing it wrong, but because you've been carrying pressure that was never meant to be there? Today I want to talk about the invisible weight educators carry when it comes to AAC, and what happened when thousands of SLPs, teachers and parents decided to approach it differently. I'm Tara Phillips, and this is the Autism Little Learners Podcast, where I share simple neuroaffirming tools to support young autistic children with compassion and confidence. One of the biggest things I've noticed over the years when it comes to AAC is that pressure on educators is enormous, and most of it is invisible. No one stands up at a staff meeting and says, I'm terrified of doing AAC wrong. But I hear in the DMs, I hear it in our membership calls. I hear it in the quiet comments after trainings. It sounds like I know AAC is important, but I don't feel confident modeling. I don't know what to say. My paras won't use it unless I tell them exactly what to do. The device just sits there. I feel like I'm constantly prompting. I don't want to create prompt dependency. What if I mess up their language development? What if I wait too long? What if I push too hard? There's constant tension between wanting to support communication and feeling unsure how to do it in a way that's neuroaffirming, developmentally appropriate and sustainable in a busy classroom. And then you layer on top of that, IEP meetings, progress monitoring, data collection, caseload sizes, behavior plans, parents asking questions, administrators asking about outcomes. AAC starts to feel like this heavy, fragile thing. Like if you touch it wrong, you might break something. And that's heartbreaking because AAC is not supposed to feel fragile. It's supposed to feel freeing. So last week, we held our very first ever AAC boot camp. And when I tell you it was incredible, I truly mean that. We had thousands of SLPs, special education teachers, parents, grandparents join us, people from all over the place, all with one shared goal. They wanted to better support communication for the children in their lives. Some were brand new to AAC. Some had been in the field for 20 years or more. Some were classroom teachers, some were speech language pathologists, and some were parents trying to figure this out at home. But they all came because they wanted clarity. And AAC Bootcamp was designed to give exactly that. Over those days, together, we walked through what AAC really is and what it isn't. We talked about modeling without expectation, we unpacked core vocabulary and why motor planning matters. We discussed how to use core boards in a way that supports muscle memory instead of disrupting it. We talked about using devices during real routines. Snack, play, transitions, playground, not just in a therapy room. We talked about modeling, protests and autonomy and reducing adult pressure. Does that sound good? Yeah, it sounded good to me. We talked about presuming competence. And most importantly, we talked about making AAC feel doable. When I first started planning AAC bootcamp, I knew I wanted it to be practical. I wanted educators to leave with the tools that they could use the very next morning. I wanted it to feel grounded and doable. Again, not overwhelming, because the last thing anyone needs is another training that sounds inspiring in theory, but falls apart the second you step back into your classroom. But if I'm being completely honest, what I really hoped for wasn't just a strategy. I hope for a shift in how adults think about aac. Because over the past few years, I've watched something really interesting happen in schools. More and more districts are purchasing devices. Many classrooms have iPads or tablets. Students are receiving communication apps earlier, which is great. On paper, it looks like progress. Progress. And in many ways, it absolutely is. But at the same time, I've been hearing a different story underneath that progress. I hear teachers say, he won't use it. I've heard SLPs say, she's just pressing random buttons. I don't think she understands it. I've heard teams quietly wonder, maybe he's not ready. And whenever I hear those statements, I start asking questions. How often are we modeling? What does modeling actually look like in your classroom when you model, what happens next? And often, not always, but often. Modeling is happening very briefly, and then expectation takes over. Model, pause, look at the child. We say, your turn. We prompt them, maybe even hand over hand. And within seconds, the experience shifts from exposure to performance. And that's why AAC bootcamp existed, because I wanted to strip everything back down to the foundation. And the foundation is this. AAC is not about performance. It's about exposure. The idea sounds simple, but when you really let it sink in, it changes everything. On the first day of bootcamp, we talked about modeling without expectation. And I could feel even through the screen, that this landed deeply for people, because so many educators are carrying that weight of performance, of output. They're not just thinking about communication. They're thinking about progress monitoring, IEP goals, data collection, parent expectations, and administrator expectations. They're thinking about whether they're doing enough. And when you're carrying all of that, it's easy to look at AAC through that performance lens. If the child doesn't use it, something must be wrong. If there's no immediate output, maybe it's not working. If progress isn't obvious, maybe we need to push harder. But when we shift from performance to exposure, that pressure on adults changes and the pressure on children changes. One educator shared during the boot camp week, still modeling AAC without expectation, it has made our lives so much less stressful at school. That one sentence told me that we were on the right track because stress often tells us something about our approach. If AAC feels tense, urgent, and frustrating, it's usually a sign that performance has taken over. When exposure becomes the focus, modeling becomes calmer. It becomes more natural. It becomes woven in to the day instead of sitting on top of it like an extra task. Throughout the week, participants started sharing what modeling looked like in real time. One teacher talked about using vehicle toys during play and modeling go and stop while allowing her student to explore freely. She didn't rush into turn taking. She didn't demand initiation. She simply modeled. Period. End of story. Later, when she did introduce some turn taking, her student began imitating the modeled words on his own. Another educator shared that she stopped using hand over hand prompting or woohoo. She admitted she wasn't sure how it was going to go, but she shifted to consistent modeling. She noticed her student was imitating more than before. That's the part that matters. When we remove pressure, we often see the more authentic participation. It's not magic, it's nervous system science. When communication feels safe and not like a test, the brain is more available for learning. There were moments during the week that felt quiet, almost easy to miss if you weren't paying attention. But they were profound. And before I share these, I want to say something that I think educators desperately need to hear. Most of the time, AAC growth is not dramatic, it's not immediate, and it's not a matter of modeling for three days and suddenly hearing full sentences. More often than not, it takes weeks, months, sometimes longer. You model and model and model, and it can feel like nothing's happening. It can feel slow, it can feel invisible. But slow does not mean ineffective. Slow is often exactly how language development works, especially when we're building new motor planning with a new communication system. And that's okay. In fact, that's expected. Now, with that in mind, let me tell you about a moment that perfectly captured exposure working exactly the way it's meant to. One educator shared that earlier in the day, she had modeled the word frustrated. She simply pointed to it during a moment when the student was mildly annoyed. There was no response, no imitation, no acknowledgment. Nothing dramatic happened. And in the past it would have been easy to think, well, that didn't do anything. But later, an hour or two later, when the student was genuinely frustrated during a different activity, he independently navigated to the word on his device. No prompt, no cue, no hand over hand, no reminder. He found it when he needed it. That is exposure working exactly the way it's meant to. Language doesn't always appear on cue. It often appears when it's meaningful. It appears when the internal need is strong enough. And sometimes the processing time between exposure and use is longer than we expect. Another participant shared that after several sessions, not one, not two, but several of modeling without expectation, her student started using new phrases for the first time. Words like later and I want to play bubbles. And she emphasized that it did not happen overnight. It happened after consistent, low pressure modeling over time. And that's the part that's hard for us adults. We live in a world that rewards quick results. But AAC growth is not about quick results. It's relationship building, exposure, rich, trust centered, and when we zoom out and we allow it to unfold at the pace it needs to unfold, we start to see those quiet, powerful moments that remind us the modeling is working even when it's slow, even when it feels invisible, even when you have to wait. One of the shifts that happened midweek was around access. We talked about core boards not as a replacement for devices, but as a way to increase visual exposure throughout the classroom. One teacher posted that she put core boards all around her room and was surprised how quickly students started interacting with them. When language is visible, it becomes normalized. When it's normalized, it becomes usable. Another SLP shared that even after many years in the field, she realized she hadn't been utilizing core boards as intentionally as she could. After trying a leveled core board this week, she saw immediate support for phrase expansion. I love moments like this because they remind us and they remind me that growth doesn't stop after year five or 10. As an educator or an SLP, we're all refining our practice. Now let's talk about devices becoming part of the culture. There was one post that perfectly captured what integration looks like. A teacher wrote that by the end of the week they had to charge three devices because between the students, herself and and her instructional assistant, they had used them all day long and their batteries were low. She mentioned that devices were messy, covered in glue and food and paint, and she chose to see that as a good sign. And she is right. When devices are part of the daily rhythm in a classroom, they stop being special tools and start being communication tools. The shift is subtle, but it changes how often they're used. AAC shouldn't live in a backpack, and it shouldn't only come out during therapy time. It should be present during art, snack, cooking activities, sensory bin circle time. Everywhere, language naturally happens One of the most meaningful wins from that week was advocacy. A teacher shared that she'd been trying to get her student's device sent home after attending boot camp and building her confidence around modeling and exposure. She pushed again, and this time it happened. Her student now has access to his talker at home and at school, and that's not a small win. That's expanded access to his voice across environments. Confidence changes advocacy within us, and advocacy changes access for kids. Another powerful outcome was how quickly the information spread. Participants weren't just implementing quietly. They were sharing with their SLPs, OTs, instructional assistants, teachers. They were discussing neuroaffirming language and IEPs, and they were talking about writing modeling into goals and into the present level. One educator mentioned that she appreciated learning how to specifically include modeling without expectation into IEP language. That's systems level thinking. When modeling becomes part of a documented plan, it becomes protected and prioritized. Culture shifts don't happen through a single training. They happen when multiple adults begin aligning around a shared understanding. One reflection that deeply moved me came from a grandparent who helps care for her autistic granddaughter. She shared that when she first received the AAC device, they didn't receive much coaching. They assumed that the goal was to get their granddaughter to use it right away. When she didn't seem interested, they felt disappointed and gradually became less motivated to model. After boot camp, she said she feels energized to model more often and understood that exposure, not immediate use, was the goal. That's a profound shift, you guys. When caregivers understand exposure, hope returns. Instead of thinking she won't use it, they began thinking, I can keep modeling and that consistency matters. By the end of the week, something really noticeable had shifted, and it wasn't just understanding of strategy, it was the tone of the questions. At the beginning of boot camp, many questions centered around how to get children to respond. They were understandable, like how do I get them to use the device? How do I prompt less but still see output? How do I know if it's working. By the end of the week, the questions felt different. Instead of asking how to get children to respond, participants were asking to embed modeling into snack art, sensory bins, circle time, and transitions. They were asking what words would you focus on during painting? Or how do I model during water table time? How do I support my paras? So they feel confident modeling with the core board or device too. They were looking for opportunities instead of outcomes. And that, my friends, is a mindset change. Instead of extracting communication, they were offering it. And the shift doesn't just change how AAC looks in a therapy session, it changes the entire classroom environment. One educator even shared that before joining the Autism Little Learners membership, many of her students didn't have meaningful ways to participate in circle time and her non speaking students were not getting adequate instruction on their AAC devices. It wasn't because she didn't care. It was because she had never been truly trained in how to embed modeling to naturally, and neither had her support staff. Another shared that the biggest resource for her had been learning how to model and use AAC devices because she realized that was an area where she and her team were severely lacking in training. And that's such an important thing to acknowledge. Most educators were never explicitly taught how to model AAC in real life classroom routines. It's not a motivation problem, it's a training and clarity problem. And by the end of bootcamp, people were feeling more optimistic and getting their teams on the same page. They weren't just thinking about their own modeling anymore. They were thinking about paraprofessionals, substitutes, related service providers, even parents. And that is huge. Because when the whole team feels confident, AAC gets used more. When paras understand that modeling doesn't mean quizzing, they relax. When support staff have simple prompts and know which words to focus on during a routine, they participate instead of standing back. When teachers feel clear about why core board placement matters and why we model without expectation, they stop second guessing themselves. And when AAC gets used and modeled more consistently throughout the day, not just during speech time, children are surrounded by language access in a way that finally mirrors how spoken language is naturally learned. That's when participation increases. That's when circle time becomes more inclusive. That's when a student who previously sat quietly now has access to turn, look, all done or my turn. That's when the device stops sitting on the shelf and starts becoming part of the rhythm of the classroom. And when adults consistently offer language in respectful, meaningful ways across routines, across team members, across settings, children grow into it. Not instantly, not dramatically, but steadily. And steady Growth is sustainable growth. It's the kind of growth that happens when a team moves from uncertainty to shared confidence. What happened during AAC Boot Camp wasn't flashy. It wasn't a series of overnight transformations. It was quieter than that. It was educators choosing to slow down, take the pressure off of themselves and the children choosing to trust exposure and remove expectation. Those choices create classrooms that feel safer and more regulated. They put connection first. When these classrooms feel safer, communication expands. And that's why this work matters. If you're listening to this episode and you're thinking, I wish I would have been part of that, I want you to know you still can be inside the Autism Little Learners membership. The full, full AAC Boot Camp replay is available right now as an on demand replay. This means you don't have to wait until the next live event. You can start immediately and move through all four sessions at your own pace. You'll gain access to the complete training, the teaching, the demonstrations, the modeling examples, the goal writing guidance, and the AAC discussions where we unpacked real classroom questions in real time. And if you're someone who wants not just the learning, but the tools to implement it confidently with your team, the AAC Companion Pack is available to you as well. So you'll have ready to use supports to make modeling easier and more consistent across your classroom and your team. Because it's not about consuming information. It's about shifting how we show up. For AAC users, it's about building confidence, not just for you, but for your entire team. It's about moving from pressure to presence. And when that shift happens, AAC stops feeling intimidating and starts becoming what it's always meant to be. Access. What I witnessed during AAC Bootcamp reminded me why I care so deeply about this work. When adults feel confident and calm, children benefit. When we trust exposure, language grows, and when we remove expectation, we we make room for authentic communication. You guys, that's what happened during this bootcamp and it was beautiful to watch. I will link everything in the show notes and thank you so much for joining me today. Keep leading with connection and I'll see you back here next week. Thank you for spending this time with me. You're doing important work and the small supports you put into place matter. Keep leading with connection and I'll talk to you again next week.