AAC interventions for children in a family environment: implementing evidence in practice

Interventions that focus on implementing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies and methods have been available to children in need of AAC and their families for at least 30 years. To date, most of the research that has considered AAC in family settings has been focused on gathering evidence of the effects of AAC interventions, rather than on implementing evidence-based strategies in everyday practice to improve outcomes. The purpose of this article is to discuss the research that has focused on parents as AAC interventionists, the family as a context for AAC intervention, and the effects of AAC interventions on children and other family members. The discussion is framed within the four steps associated with the process of knowledge translation: (a) deciding on desired outcomes of interventions, (b) evaluating evidence of the effectiveness of different AAC methods to obtain the desired outcomes, (c) translating the research evidence into everyday practice, and (d) implementing knowledge in practice.