The Communication Resource Center: A New Jersey AAC service delivery model

Abstract

Many clients served by the New Jersey Department of Human Services have severe communication disorders, and the prognosis for their acquiring speech remains guarded. Prior to the establishment of the Communication Resource Center (CRC), the Department had no systematic approach to serving these individuals. Frequently, communication systems were ordered from catalogues by staff who had received no training in the appropriate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) evaluation strategies. Clients were not well served, and monies were ill spent as a result of such educationally and clinically unsound procedures. In the Fall of 1985, the Department's Office of Education established the CRC to provide AAC services to individuals throughout the State. This paper presents demographic and clinical data concerning the individuals who have been referred to the CRC from 1986 through 1989.

• assistive devices
• augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
• demographic
• funding
• service delivery