Learning how to combine words to spontaneously generate utterances that no one has ever heard before is an ability that comes naturally to some people. Others need consistent support to develop this ability. This ability is called Spontaneous Novel Utterance Generation (SNUG), a term crafted by Katya Hill, PhD, CCC-SLP, and Barry Romich.

“Success in life can be directly related to the ability to communicate. Full interpersonal communication substantially enhances an individual’s potential for education, employment, and independence. Therefore, it is imperative that the goal of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) use be the most effective interactive communication possible. Anything less represents a compromise of the individual’s human potential.” – Katya Hill, PhD, CCC-SLP

When one develops this ability, it becomes impossible to accurately predict what another person might say in any given situation or environment. The autonomy to say whatever you want to say, however you want to say it, is the ultimate goal when it comes to expressive language development. In the video below, learners show off examples of how they say sentences that no one could have predicted given the situation demonstrating their ability to spontaneously generate novel utterances.