Individuals with complex communication needs cannot articulate what they want to communicate through intelligible speech. Consequently, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods can be taught to these individuals so they can communicate in a way that is understood by others. As part of the training on how to use AAC methods, communication partners, such as parents, are often included to support the intervention and training process. While there is significant research about various stakeholders' experience with augmentative and alternative communication methods, researchers have acknowledged that the parents' lived experiences regarding such training still need further exploration. Therefore, the purpose of this study was crafted to help fulfill such a need by using the following questions as a guide to explore parents' lived experiences: What are parents' lived experiences with the training they received from Individual Education Program (IEP) team members to support their child's AAC use outside of the school setting? What barriers and facilitators to AAC training emerged from parents' lived experiences? How did parents' lived experiences with the training they received impact their competence to utilize the same AAC method in the home? Using Mousakas' transcendental phenomenology method, 22 parents' lived experiences from 19 different states were explored regarding augmentative and alternative communication training they received from school staff. Data collection was employed using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and were checked by the participants for accuracy. Once approved by members, textural and structural descriptions were formed for each participant's transcript, followed by composite descriptions across participants. Using a phenomenological analysis, the findings created a composite description of the essence of parental involvement in augmentative and alternative communication training. This phenomenon studied was able to be broken down into three essences based on repeated themes within the data: (1) the essence of AAC training for parents and their children, (2) the essence of barriers and facilitators with AAC training, and (3) the essence of the level of competence to use AAC methods independently. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]