Is it ever too late for AAC?

I don't know what you think.

No, I would completely agree with that, Ruth, because so I'm in the process of writing two books at the moment and nearly completing one, which is great.

So just, yeah, get one out of my brain is good.

But for both of them, I was sort of like thinking, right, I'd really like to collaborate with some adult AAC users for a So one of them is specifically about neurodiversity affirming AAC.

And one of them is, it's the second edition to my first book, which was Who's Afraid of AAC.

So that was very much geared towards the diversity of the AAC population.

And I know loads of adult AAC users who have cerebral palsy or similar conditions.

So, you know, they might be in a powered wheelchair and have a mounted device and that's how they communicate.

So I could automatically like think of like 15 or 20 people in my sort of like network, AAC World Network network.

that can contribute with that positionality of having physical disabilities and maybe sensory disabilities alongside communication disability.

But when I was thinking about my neurodiversity affirming book, There are quite a lot of AAC users in the autistic world.

But I would say a lot of those have come to it late in life or they are part-time AAC users.

And I was really wanting to sort of like capture the experience of someone who'd used AAC from early on in their life as well, because I do think that is quite a distinct identity.

And I was very fortunate that I have been able to collaborate with an absolutely amazing AAC expert.

And she has been able to tell me about like her introduction to AAC.

And interestingly, that was in her teens for robust AAC.

So, yeah, I would say that there aren't so many role models for full time AAC use.

We might be corrected hugely.

I mean, if you are out there.

there and you are a full-time AAC user and that was introduced to you as a child please do get in touch with us because we'd love to hear from you we'll have maybe have you as a guest on the podcast but I just don't feel as though it is such a well-known identity and there are so there aren't so many people out there gosh that was long-winded I'm so sorry everybody we're at the end of term and my language processing is sort of like on the floor so I'm taking a very long time to say what I need to say.