AAC Assessment Checklist

Birmingham, Karnezos, and Light (2016) created this AAC checklist as a systematic guide for teams as they complete AAC assessments. It includes the first three components of the revised Participation Model by Beukelman and Mirenda (2013).Each assessment check is included based on evidence that it will improve assessments for individuals with complex communication needs (CCN). Below is a preview of the AAC checklist and here is a printable pdf version of the AAC Assement Checklist available to you for download. 

    What are the students communication need?

  • What does the student need to understand?
  • With whom does the student need to communicate?
  • Why does the student need to communicate?
  • About what does the student need to communicate?
  • When and where does the student need to communicate?
  • How does the student need to communicate?

    Which of the student's communication needs are unmet? 

    ​Which of the student's communication needs are priorities for the student? family? school?

    What are the student's vision skills?

  • Visual field?
  • Visual acuity?

    What are the student's hearing skills?

    What are the student's motor skills?

  • Gestures and signs
  • Access to systems (direct selection and/or switch)
  • Seating and positioning 

    What are the student's receptive language skills?

  • Understanding words, morphology, and sentence structure

    What are the student's expressive communication skills?

  • Turntaking?
  • Natural speech and intelligibility?
  • About what and how does the student communicate?

    What are the student's literacy skills?

  • Letter-sound correspondence
  • Decoding 
  • Sight-word recognition
  • Reading comprehension 
  • Spelling
  • Writing 

    What are the student's symbol representation skills?

  • Types of symbols (Objectives, gestures, signs, photographs, line drawings, print)

    What are the student's cognitive organization skills?

  • Display (Grids, visual scenes)
  • Symbol organization (Context, category, syntax, alphabet, other)

    What are partner support to communication?

  • Opportunities for communication
  • Knowledge of AAC services, systems, and/or instructional strategies

    What are partner limitations to communications?

  • Limited opportunities for communication
  • Limited knowledge of AAC services, systems, and instructional strategies

    What are environmental supports to communication?

  • Educational placement
  • Environmental access

    What are environmental limitations to communication?

  • Educational placement
  • Limited environmental access
  • Limited use (Student is unable to use the AAC system across environments)

Who is involved in this assessment?

  Student

  Family

  Professionals 

  • Instructional assistant 
  • Regular education teacher
  • Special education teacher
  • Assistive technology specialist
  • Occupational therapist
  • Physical therapist
  • Speech-language pathologist
  • Others