Beyond Childhood: Adult AAC Users may need the Symbols they want.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is often introduced to people in their early life. Many of us first encounter AAC symbols in classrooms, therapy rooms, or early-years settings. As a result, AAC symbol design has historically been shaped by children's needs. 

But adults who use AAC are not simply older children. They are friends, workers, partners, activists, patients, citizens, and parents. They have established identities, opinions, humour, and life experience. When adult AAC users are supported with symbol systems designed primarily for childhood learning, the mismatch may be felt immediately, and possibly painfully, unless the system has been a lifetime journey of building communication charts. 

For organisations like Global Symbols, whose work reaches AAC users throughout a lifespan and across cultures, this distinction matters. Symbol choice is not just a technical decision; it is about dignity, participation, and being heard as an adult. 

Adult Communication is about Roles, Rights and Responsibility alongside Social Interactions. 

Children’s AAC systems often focus on developmental goals: learning words, naming objects, requesting items, and following routines. These foundations are essential for early communication.  As Gail Van Tatenhove suggests “Normal language development information is the foundation for building generative language with a child using AAC strategies”. 

Adult life, however, brings a very different set of communication demands. More importantly, adults who have lost the ability to use a mode of communication have not necessarily lost their capacity to use language.  There may be the need for an alternative source of support for both understanding and expression at many different levels, depending on the underlying condition that has caused the loss of speech.  For some, that may mean using symbols.  

Adult AAC users may need to talk about their work, employment, volunteering, study, health, pain, consent, treatment choices, housing, money, benefits, legal rights, relationships, parenting, intimacy, sexuality, politics, religion, identity, and activism. Beyond this, our interests and socialising as adults is liable to be quite different to those of children.  

When symbol sets are dominated by play, school activities, or simplified daily routines, they may feel restrictive or infantilising. Adult AAC symbols must support adult lives, not childhood scenarios. 

Symbols may shape how Adults are Perceived 

AAC symbols are not neutral. The visual style of a symbol system influences how communication partners perceive the person using it. Imagery with exaggerated facial expressions, or childlike metaphors might risk an adult’s credibility in certain circumstances, such as in healthcare, employment, or legal contexts. They may opt for more stylised or realistic images that reflect how they wish to be perceived. For adults, AAC is not usually a learning aid, it is their public voice.  When symbols appear childish, adults may be treated in a childlike way. 

Adults may already have Language and Opinions 

Many adult AAC users already understand language, concepts, and the world around them. Their challenge may include comprehension difficulties but it is often largely about expression. Adults may want to communicate abstract ideas such as justice, fairness, trust, or risk; nuanced emotions; conditional statements; opinions and disagreement. Both vocabulary and symbols should unlock thought, not simplify it away - have a look at the symbols created by Adult AAC users . 

Speed and Efficiency, Tone and Personality matter in Adult Life 

Adults communicate in fast-moving, time-pressured situations such as medical appointments, workplaces, public transport, online spaces, and busy social settings. Efficiency is essential for participation.

But equally, tone, humour and personality matter. Adult communication depends on the way things are said, jokes, sarcasm, politeness, and seriousness. Symbol systems should allow for story telling in a more characterful way - just in time symbol creation may be a way forward.

Representation, Culture and Identity Count 

Adults live within complex cultural, social, and political realities. Symbol sets must support diversity and inclusion. As a result, adults want agency and choice. often expecting to be able to customise and evolve their AAC systems.  Where these expectations are enabled, it is important to understand that changes occur across the AAC user's lifespan. Systems must adapt as personal preferences, settings and situations change. The person needs access to the right symbols to match these needs.  

The Global Symbols repository offers a very wide range of AAC symbols, and our new Symbol Creator AI allows adults to instantly create adult-appropriate symbols in a variety of styles to support dignity, autonomy and participation across a lifetime.  Symbol Creator AI makes it possible to create symbols in any style of choice. Perhaps an AAC user may want something in Manga style, photorealistic or even a quite generic, plain and simple pictograph.  Users may want to mix styles, integrating something like an ‘emoji’ into their conversations, evoking tone and mood as well as concrete objects. That is for the user to decide, and Global Symbols aims to make that as easy as possible for all AAC users as well as those who communicate with them.  

Final Thought 

Adults who use AAC are not “older children”. They are adults with voices, opinions, humour and agency.  When symbols are designed and facilitated with adulthood in mind, AAC becomes a tool for dignity, equality and inclusion in every aspect of life.