Awareness of the importance of using assisted communication is spreading further.
In the waiting rooms of the children's clinics (speech therapist, psychologist and educational rehabilitator clinic) of the Special Hospital for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation "Martin Horvat" Rovinj-Rovigno, we installed communication boards so that our small patients with complex communication needs could more easily communicate their wishes, needs and feelings and how it would be easier for them to understand where they are going and what they will do.
The goal of using one of the forms of assisted communication is to achieve functional communication, full participation in age-appropriate activities, and the acquisition of new knowledge and experiences. It is these early experiences that are important for later language and speech development. Early intervention should enable a child with complex communication needs to gather these experiences through various forms of assisted communication.
Although many myths and misconceptions about assisted communication are still present today, the most common one being that a child who uses assisted communication will not develop speech due to lack of motivation, numerous studies have shown that assisted communication helped the development of speech, increased language skills, facilitated easier learning as well as socialization (Millar, Light & Schlossler, 2006).
