Total Communication
“Increasing the opportunity for all pupils to communicate with whoever they want, whenever they want, in their preferred mode”
We want all of our pupils to be able to ‘chat’ – to be able to communicate with their families, friends and important people in their lives; to be confident that others will understand them and respond to them.
In partnership with parents we use a range of resources and methods – Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) – to help our children to express their needs and to develop effective communication, providing routes to support the development of language and prompting spoken communication.
Pupils use objects of reference (i.e. a cup to represent ‘drink’), photographs, symbols (colour or black and white pictures), sign language(Signalong), written text and speech; and the resources produced and practices implemented support individual and whole group communication; supporting expression of need, conversational language and vocabulary to aid learning.
All of our work is based upon the principles of supported communication to introduce the appropriate level of vocabulary at the appropriate developmental stage.