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For teachers

A guide for special-education teachers: AAC in the classroom

A student who does not speak, or speaks little, has arrived in your resource room. What AAC is, what to do in the first week, how the free teacher portal works, how a school tablet is paired and what Brazilian law guarantees. This is a shorter English version of our guia do professor do AEE.

falatheo team · Updated · about 5 minutes

1. What AAC is, in two minutes

Augmentative and Alternative Communication is everything that supplements or replaces speech: gestures, eye gaze, boards and folders with pictures, and apps that speak aloud. There are no prerequisites and no minimum age, and research shows AAC does not hold speech back (Millar, Light & Schlosser, 2006). The core idea for a teacher: the child learns to use the board by watching adults use it to talk to them. That is called modelling.

2. The first week

  1. Ask the family how the child communicates today. If they already use a board or app at home, use the same one at school, same words in the same places.
  2. Print a board (core, and the school board in Portuguese at /prancha-de-comunicacao/escola), laminate it and keep it in the same spot.
  3. Model without demanding. Speak normally and touch the key words. Do not ask the child to repeat; do not quiz.
  4. Wait 10 seconds after asking, in silence, looking at the child.
  5. Respond to every attempt, even "off topic" ones.
  6. Write it down in the case study: what the child did with the board and what you modelled.

3. The teacher portal (free)

falatheo has a web portal for the people around the person who uses the app. For teachers it is free, with no limit and no card. Teachers join by invitation from the family or the professional who follows the student. Special-education (AEE) teachers edit the student's boards and pair the school tablet; class teachers and aides see the boards and write in the team diary. Private clinical notes are never shown to the school.

4. Pairing the school tablet

From app version 0.1.6 (the store build in October 2026, 0.1.2, is standalone): in the portal, open the student, the Devices tab and "Connect the app" to get a 6-digit code and a QR code. On the tablet, install falatheo (free), open caregiver mode, choose Connect and type the code or scan the QR, marking the device as "school". Boards arrive on the tablet and later edits download in the background. The app keeps working 100% offline. Usage data leaves the tablet only if the family authorises it in the portal.

5. What Brazilian law says

  • Special-education services without a medical report. Decree 12,686/2025, art. 11 § 7: the service cannot be conditioned on a diagnosis, report or any document from a health professional.
  • Low-tech AAC in special education. Law 15,249/2025 (Brazilian Inclusion Law, art. 28 XIX): boards and low-tech resources for students with complex communication needs, with ongoing staff training.
  • Tablets in class. Decree 12,686/2025, art. 12 § 4: the school issues a pedagogical opinion authorising a portable device as assistive technology.
  • Individual plans (PEI/PAEE) are mandatory (Decree 12,773/2025); a report from a health professional helps but is not a condition.

Sources

This guide is informational and does not replace guidance from your school system or an assessment by health professionals.