Augmentative and Alternative Communication: introduction and two case studies.

The final paper describes augmentative and alternative communication and how it is used to help people with complex communication needs. The first part f the paper is about communication: the biological and social infrastructure of communication are analysed as well as its ontogenetic and phylogenetic development. The second chapter presents alternative and augmentative communication: its principles, assessment, intervention modalities, devices which are usually employed to reach a more effective communication. The third part presents two cases of developmental disabilities: first, autism and specific impairment in language comprehension and second, cerebral palsy. Both cases have a brief introduction about the assessment and evaluation, but the attention is focused on the identification and matching of the two individuals' communication needs.