SRI LANKAN SPECIAL EDUCATION PROFESSIONAL'S COMPETENCIES ABOUT AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION (AAC) – A STUDY BASED ON NORTHERN PROVINCE OF SRI LANKA

Special Needs Educational expert emphasis that Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is essential for communication disabilities (Light & McNaughton, 2014, p. 17). Based on this point of view this study aimed to investigate the level of AAC competencies of the special education professionals who are working in the government schools of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. To achieve this objective, the researcher administered a questionnaire on 209 special teachers and 12 ISAs of special education and an interview schedule on 32 special teachers who work in the government schools. According to the analysis, the mean values have shown low level of knowledge – 1.89, average skills – 3.14 and attitude – 3.43 of participants and standard deviations range is 0.386 - 0.698 and p-Value of the Kruskal – Wallis Test and One-way ANOVA independent variables t-test shows significant difference in the participants’ personal information and competencies on AAC. Moreover, some extent AAC has been using by teachers, the special education professionals have realized the importance of the knowledge and skills about AAC, the special education professionals have experienced with the benefits of AAC. However, teachers face challenges regarding the practices of AAC such as lack of resources, knowledge, and skills, management, etc. Workshops on AAC, adequate resources, training programs for special education professionals are necessary to make successful AAC implementation in the research area