AAC Language Assessment: Considerations for Adults With Aphasia

Abstract The process of recommending AAC systems and strategies for adults with aphasia requires clinicians to analyze both the language skills of the client and the specific language demands posed by different AAC systems. This paper describes some of the challenges people with aphasia face when attempting to use AAC approaches and presents a brief overview of language assessment techniques for people with aphasia. We review the AAC-Aphasia Classification System (Garrett & Lasker, 2005)—a tool for describing communication behaviors of people with aphasia. We present a brief analysis of the language features inherent in some AAC systems in terms of language storage and retrieval. We also discuss the importance of matching clients' current and potential language skills with an appropriate AAC tool.