VIDBE-Q Volume 66, Issue 2
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to drive communication goal development and support the collaborative
educational team to design a path toward symbolic communication and language.
Expressive communication modalities for students with CVI should be
selected and adapted to reflect a balance between the student's conceptual and
expressive language development, and sensory access/goals appropriate to their
current visual functioning. A "balanced communication plan" is one that
incorporates both the sensory access of the child (CVI phase and characteristics,
preferred learning channels) with their communication level access (pre-
symbolic/symbolic, pre-linguistic/linguistic). Incongruent AAC programming
reflects a "mismatch" between expressive communication levels and sensory
access needs. In an "unbalanced communication plan," on the one hand the AAC
modality may be appropriate from a communication standpoint, but visually
inaccessible (e.g., an eye gaze system for a student with CVI in Phase I, who is
currently unable to establish eye-to-object contact/prolonged visual fixation). On
the other hand, the modality may be visually accessible, but inappropriate in terms
of communication development (current expressive levels) (e.g., a complex 2-D
high tech AAC system adapted for a student in Phase III, but the child is currently
a pre-symbolic communicator). The goal of AAC programming for students with
cortical visual impairment is to create a match between what is appropriate