Speech & Language Therapists Aisling Dolly and Emer Noble carried out this practical research project in a special school setting.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a whole school AAC intervention approach, focusing on knowledge of Lámh signs among communication partners. Acquisition and use of single signs as well as ability to combine signs for spontaneous novel utterance generation (SNUG) was evaluated.

Conclusions: A whole school AAC intervention approach is effective in enhancing knowledge and use of Lámh among communication partners. Demonstration of not only single signs but also different combinations of these signs as part of this intervention approach is effective in expanding the mean length of signed utterance being modelled by communication partners.