Browsing by Author "Husso, Riikka"

Finland is driving a policy for educational inclusion. Special schools are closing down and local schools are ought to provide the support needed. That said, a lot of special need persons and Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) users are still attending special schools. From the educational inclusion’s point of view that is not a great situation because educational inclusion is a human right – everyone can and should benefit from inclusive education. We are slowly progressing with the idea that one school could provide everyone’s educational needs. That transition requires schools to chance their way of thinking and working. Parents, teachers, speech-language pathologists and several other groups of stakeholders play important roles in building successful inclusion for students who use AAC. The objective of this study is to synthesize the key literature related to different stakeholders and inclusion of AAC users by answering the following research question: “What are the critical success factors of educational inclusion of an AAC user according to different stakeholders?” In order to synthesize the existing academic discussion, this study made a systematic literature review. Six relevant articles were picked and analyzed. A common theme in all six papers was that they provided thoughts of stakeholders related to inclusion of children who either used or required AAC method. The results of this study indicate that the stakeholders quite unanimously picked effective team communication and collaboration as the most important facilitator of successful inclusion. Curriculum modifications was also seen as an important factor but teachers felt that they needed more education related to it. Furthermore, the stakeholders thought that the school should provide more time for teachers to provide the needed support for AAC users who attend a new school.