What are the prerequisites for using a high-tech voice output device?
There are no prerequisites for learning to use an AAC device other than the ability to produce a purposeful movement. The myth that a child needs to have cognitive prerequisites or move through a hierarchy of steps prior to using high-tech systems has been discredited repeatedly. (Adamson, L.B., Romski, M.A., Deffebach, K., Sevcik, R.A.,1992), (Stuart, Sheela and Ritthaler, Christopher, 2008), (Beukelman, David R. and Mirenda, Pat, 2005), (http://www.asha.org/NJC/eligibility.htm) Some will say that first a child needs to understand the use of symbols by using real objects, then pictures of real objects, then abstract representations of those objects to communicate. This would mean changing a person’s communication system over and over. Others would say that a child needs to demonstrate the cognitive ability to use low-tech devices first. However, when low-tech devices do not incorporate consistent motor patterns to access words, the child has to learn the meanings of lots of different
