LLC
Speech Therapy Services &
Augmentative/Alternative
Communication Specialist
Serving Clients Across the Lifespan...
Contact Us: (732) 623-9619
What does it Mean...
The name of the project is the TInIG AAC project ("TINIG" means "Voice" in Filipino) ... The Acronym stands for Technological Intervention In Giving Augmentative Alternative Communication to individuals with communication disabilities.
The Project...
Terese Jimenez Manalansan is a speech language pathologist who has started a project in the Philippines to give voice to the voiceless.The Philippines is full of individuals with disabilities who are full of potential. But for a country riddled with poverty, the advancement in Augmentative Alternative Communication (using other modalities - like technology to communicate) is almost non-existent when she started the project in 2014.
What are our goals...
The objective of the program is to give Filipino individuals with communication disabilities another means to communicate by providing them with tablets loaded with a communication application. They will then be paired up with a local Speech language Pathologists (SLP) who will provide them with AAC intervention. These SLPs will be trained and mentored by me through the 10-month program I have developed with the University of the Philippines. This certificate course have been recognized by the Philippine Association of Speech Patholoists (PASP). When these SLPs complete the course they will be one of the first AAC specialists in the country!
What we have accomplished so far...
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To date, there are now 2 universities who are offering formal undergraduate courses on AAC intervention. Faculty from both universities completed the TINIG AAC program. The structure of the curriculum was also guided by the TINIG AAC program to ensure that minimum required knowledge and skills for beginning clinicians are covered and taught in these courses.
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To date we have helped 37 individuals find their voices.
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We aim to start new partnerships with NGOs (non-government civic organizations) to increase the people we could help.
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We are currently working on designing a program to perform free screening clinics for underprivileged Filipinos with complex communication needs in order to perform feature-matching assessments to provide them with the proper AAC modality through various NGO donors.
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Since the establishment of the TINIG AAC program there are now 37 AAC certified specialists and 13 AAC specialist candidates who are serving clients in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Challenges...
The challenge of sustaining this effort year after year remains and we continue to search for sustainable means of providing AAC to the under served in the Philippines.
If you want to help us help others please go to www.tinigaacproject.com
or go to our gofundme page: https://www.gofundme.com/tinig-aac-project
