PURPOSE: to analyze the speech of physiotherapists on the use of Supplementary and Alternative Communication (AAC) with patients with chronic non-progressive encephalopathy (CNPE) during physiotherapy session. METHOD: individual interviews were conducted with five professionals concerning questions relevant to the topic in the form of open questions. Data analysis occurred through grouping ideas and selecting the most relevant topics through relational and critical analysis. RESULTS: the five interviewed physiotherapists say that they know and emphasize the importance of using AAC in their sessions but they didn’t have theoretical formation on the topic. The contact and the use of this approach were made through interdisciplinary exchange with the speech therapist from the institution where they work. This fact, added to the specific demands of the physiotherapy session, limits the incorporation of this approach in daily practice by four of the interviewed professionals. Only one has incorporated it to her daily routine. CONCLUSION: all the interviewed professionals claimed having improvements in using AAC, specifically in improving the interaction with CNPE patients, but they also claimed having difficulties with instrumental aspects that limit the use of AAC, such as the size of the AAC board, the way it is individually build for each patient and the dynamics of the physiotherapy session. They attribute the difficulty of relatives’ acceptance to the social limitation in using AAC. The presence of the speech therapist in the team seeing the person with CNPE was essential for those professionals to use AAC.
Communication; Cerebral Palsy; Language; Humanization of Assistance
