Peer Support Training Manual

This post will focus on what peers need to know about communicating with a fellow student who uses augmentative communication. Here are some guidelines to talk to an augmented communicator:

• Be yourself. They are just like the average person when having a conversation- they just speak differently.
• Talk to the user at an age-appropriate level. 
• Talk to the user, not the person with them. It's rude to ignore them and they don't want to be invisible!
• You can ask them if you can read their screen or if you can guess what they are saying. 
• If you are having a regular conversation, try not to praise the user. Praising the person can make them feel uncomfortable or annoyed because the conversation is now off topic. 

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. (2nd ed., pp. 3-22). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.