But modeling is the Best Practice for teaching AAC you say. It's how you do it. It's the best way we know to help people learn to communicate.
I say no. Modeling isn't the best way to teach AAC. The best way to teach AAC is simply communicating.
There's a whole bunch out there about modeling, what is modeling, how you should model, what are the best ways to model, how to be more efficient with modeling, but what it comes down to is that it always is being unnatural. You aren't naturally communicating. You aren't using words like you usually do. You aren't putting together sounds, putting together words, playing with language, using language, using sentences, the way you usually do. It's not talking about things you talk about, the world around you, what people like, reading books together. It's not how we talk.
How people model, how people talk about modeling, is like you can only show one button at a time. We don't learn only one word at a time, we learn relationships between words, we learn words and how they interact with each other. We learn words that pile upon another, playing with each other. We learn how some words fit with each other, and others don't, at the same time as learning words. We learn language. Because, we hear these things. We have them offered to us. They are used around us. They are used.
How people model is like you have to go out of your way to find ways to use these words. The important words. The core words. The words you need to make sure people know. Like it matters what people learn first. The words we learn can be the words we learn. We can communicate in multiple ways. Pay attention to the communication. But, going out of the way, isn't natural, it doesn't make those words make sense, they don't fit.
How people model is like, you need to think, and plan, and use numbers, and it these numbers and counting, and looking at the data just about makes it into trials. It makes communication into behavior.
My communication isn't behavior. My AAC use isn't behavior. My life isnt a series of behaviors.
You want to teach AAC?
What about just talking?
What about simply, using AAC?
What about simply, communication being, having AAC, and using AAC, and that being your default method of communication. Type, buttons, learn them, know them. You want to ask for food, use it. You want to talk about the baby bird, use them. You want to read a book, use it. You want to play with sounds together, joyfully playing with the fact that noises are noises and you can make specific noises with specific letters? Use it. Just, use AAC, however it gets used. Whether that's talking about dogs and cats, or about advanced mathematics, or both.
This exposes AAC. This shows language. This shows buttons. This is natural, you using it when and how you would be. This interaction. This is interactive. This isn't sitting there using AAC like it is some thing you would never want to use, but I guess you need to push these buttons to show that they exist (because seriously "I need to say all the words and press one" WOW that is saying speech is better, and like there is something wrong with me for using AAC for all of them, not like I'd want to interact with someone doing that to me. I would choose not to interact with someone doing that to me.) This is communication.
Modeling isn't communication.
Using AAC. Communicating with AAC, is letting someone communicate back, however they choose, is listening, is responding, is paying attention and learning someone else's language, as well as learning and communicating with an AAC app, but the important central part of this is that it's communicating. It's an interaction between multiple people. It's an interaction.
You want to teach AAC?
Use it