The importance of motivation

In using AAC devices, I’ve noticed that parents tend to envision the device as an automatic solution to their child’s communication needs. Parents anticipate that the child will take to the device right away with somewhat of a sustained interest, and express disillusion with it when he/she doesn’t use it the way they expected. Some parents report their children touching the wrong keys, responding incorrectly and getting distracted. Disheartened by the lack of immediate results, parents spend decreasing amounts of time helping their child with the AAC.In India, where the credibility of AACs and its success is still little known, there is a skepticism towards using technology, which in turn impacts how much the child is actually exposed to the device. If the child doesn’t respond quickly to the device, parents stop encouraging him/her to use it: it becomes easy to blame the technology, to claim that it isn’t a good fit for them.