AAC is speech, not a last resort

Augmentative and alternative communication is any way of saying something that is not, or not only, the mouth. A dedicated talker. A keyboard. A paper board. A hold-up card. Pointing. Typing in Notes. All of it is language.

Integration is not “get them onto an app and wait”. It is keeping the system in reach, using it yourself while you talk, believing the output, and refusing to make oral speech the price of being heard. People who speak some of the time still need AAC. Unreliable speech is still a reason.

The harm is specific: a device taken as punishment, a vocabulary of only snacks, a prompt of “use your words” while you already know, a demand that they repeat the sentence with their mouth. Those are methods. They are the wrong ones.

Kindred’s board is a quiet backup and a way to practise modeling. It is not a replacement for a robust talker — Proloquo, LAMP, TD Snap, CoughDrop, a keyboard, whatever already works. Follow the system the person already has. Then add a backup for when it cannot come.