Bite-Sized Pieces of AAC Knowledge and Skills: Is the IPAACKS format working for people?

Session

5.08

Practice Report

• • Janet Scott (SCTCI)

Summary

This presentation provides an update of how IPAACKS has been used and the results of an initial evaluation. The evaluation took place within a year of publication, and as such it reflected people’s initial impressions and their early experiences of using IPAACKS.

Method/Activities/Techniques

Three main approaches were adopted in the evaluation process: feedback from workshops; online consultation; and semi-structured interviews.

Results/Findings

The workshops were useful in raising awareness of IPAACKS and how it might be applied in different contexts. Despite being widely advertised, there were only 24 respondents to the survey. Of those, 87% felt that IPAACKS was suitable for their needs. The interviews provided detailed information about how people had used IPAACKS, their perceptions of it as well as useful suggestions for improvement.

Conclusions

IPAACKS is a relatively new resource; however, it has already been used in a variety of different ways, e.g. as a service/departmental tool, by individual workers to identify their strengths and gaps in knowledge and skills as part of a review process, and by some to inform the content of training or education courses. Recommendations for further development and contextualisation of the IPAACKS format have also been made.

References

NHS Education for Scotland (2014) IPAACKS: informing and profiling AAC knowledge and skills. Available at http://bit.ly/1eWpQej

Level of Session

General

Age Group

All Ages

Interest

Primary school
Secondary school
Special school
Further/Higher Ed.
Adult
Transitions