week 9 acquisitions

Define Assistive Technology.

- Means any item, piece of equipment of product, whether acquired commercially or off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of an individual with a disability

Define Alternative and Augmentative Communication.

- Any system or method that replaces or supports natural speech and provides a means for someone to communication

- Aided AAC system

o Communication that requires an external tool or device

 Low Tech

• Communication boards

• PECS

 Mid Tech

• System that has limited or simple voice outputs

• Step by Steps

• iPads

• Tech Talk Series

 High Tech

• Systems that have more complex language storage/encoding and access

• Tobii DynaVox

• Nova Chats

Unaided AAC system

o Communication that relies only on the user’s body

 Sign language

 Eye gaze

 Body language

 Gestures

 Facial expressions

What is OT’s role with AAC? Please describe.

- Critical member of the decision-making team

- Input on sensory needs of individual

- Input on design/symbol choices/range/positioning of system

- Fellow implementer across all environments and employment situations

How is a key guard useful?

o Usually plastic or metal that fits on top of a communication device or tablet

- How is it useful

o Improves accuracy

o Provides resting support

o Reduces accidental activations

Understand the difference between vocabulary organization strategies (AKA: Grids vs visual scenes vs spelling with word prediction/phrase predication).

Grids

- Sematic syntactic grid displays

- Taxonomic grid displays

- Activity grid displays

Understand the difference between vocabulary organization strategies (AKA: Grids vs visual scenes vs spelling with word prediction/phrase predication).

visual scenes

- Depicts both environmental context of an event relevant to eh person with CCN

- Hot Spots, play messages or open grid displays

Spelling with Prediction

- Alphabet

o What order? Alphabetical or Frequency of Usage

o What type of prediction: letter, word, phrase, sentence?

How many times slower is communication using an AAC versus the spoken language?

- Range 15x to 25x slower than spoken speech

What is the difference between timed activation and release activation?

- Timed activation

o Holding for 2 seconds to activate

- Release activation

o Once released it will be activating

What is eye gaze versus scanning technology for AAC?

Eye Gaze

- The user controls a communication device by moving their eyes

Scanning

- A method of accessing in which a highlighted area moves repeatedly from one character to the next

What are important considerations when recommending various types of AAC?

- Motor Access

o How will the person use it (touch, eye gaze, head pointer)

- Vision and hearing

o Can the person see or hear the system

- Cognition and language

o Match symbol size and navigation to the individual’s skills

- Environment

o Where will the person use? (school, home, work)

- Training and follow-up

o Both the individual or person of care know how to use it, need practice, device updates