AAC in Everyday Life: A Parent Communication, Connection & Support Program is a structured, group-based parent learning program delivered by Holistic Therapy & Consulting. The program supports families of young children who use, or may benefit from, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), to build confidence, practical skills and connection.

Facilitated by experienced speech pathologists, the program helps parents and caregivers understand multimodal communication and use AAC partner strategies in everyday routines. Key strategies include aided language modelling, responsive communication, scaffolding, reducing communication pressure, and supporting communication through play, routines and shared activities.

The program is delivered through facilitated group sessions that combine guided learning, demonstrations, video and case examples, role-play, reflection activities and peer discussion. Families trial strategies at home between sessions and return to the group to reflect, problem-solve and strengthen implementation.

The program is neurodiversity-affirming, family-centred and strengths-based. It aims to increase parent self-efficacy, reduce isolation, and create more consistent communication opportunities for children across home and early learning environments. It supports outcomes aligned with the AEDC domains of communication skills and general knowledge, language and cognitive skills, and social competence.

Expected outcomes are:

• improved family understanding of diverse communication, multimodal communication and AAC partner strategies
• improved family ability to support communication practices at home and in everyday routines
• improved family confidence in promoting language development and participation through play and
• improved family connection and engagement in supporting children’s communication, social interaction and learning.

The program runs over a 12-week period and includes six group sessions delivered fortnightly. Each session is approximately two hours in duration. The spacing between sessions allows families time to practise strategies within everyday routines and return to the group to reflect, share experiences, and problem-solve challenges with facilitator guidance.

The AAC Parent Learning Program is charged at $250 per hour. Standard delivery comprises six two-hour group workshops (12 hours of facilitated delivery) for up to 10 parents/caregivers. Any additional programming, planning, preparation of accessible resources, follow-up and implementation support is charged at the same $250 per hour rate based on the hours required. Travel is charged at $250 per hour where travel time exceeds 10-15 minutes each way.