Forms of AAC: Aided, Unaided, Symbols, Architecture

Unaided AAC

• only your body

• No external equipment

• Vocalizations/speech

• Gestures

• Eye blinks

Aided AAC

• external aid/device

• Low-tech, mid-tech, high-tech

• Photos/pictures

• Switch

• Speech Generating Device (SGD)

natural speech/vocalizations

• Unintelligible→ supplement with letters (letter board can make them more intelligible “ah” + c = cat)

• Specific messages→hi, bye, no, yes (they may only can say these phrases but nothing else)

natural gestures

• Thumbs-up, shoulder shrug

• Context dependent→pointing to the object

• Representational→throwing ball

  • if they can do this quickly, they should use it → don’t require them to “say” it

proceed with caution

• baby signs → these are signs adults use too

• ASL→manual signs (unless you are teaching a whole langauge)

advantages of unaided AAC

• No equipment→always with you

• Affordable

• Generally accepted

• No negative impact on speech development (for anything)

• Can be used in conjunction with other forms of AAC (high tech)

disadvantages of unaided AAC

• Might not be understood by all (home signs, manual signs, unintelligible speech)

• Gross/Fine Motor Limitations

Real/Partial/Associated Objects

aided AAC

physical objects, either whole, partial, or associated with the referent can be used as a form of aided AAC to represent concepts and facilitate communication

Photos/Line Drawings/Symbols

aided AAC

visual representations such as photographs, line drawings, and symbolic icons can be used to represent vocabulary and ideas in aided AAC

Orthography/Spelling/Print

aided AAC

Textual representations, including letters, words, and phrases, can be used in aided AAC to convey messages and support literacy development

iconicity

Iconicity is ____ bound, ___ bound, ____ bound

culture, time, experience

iconicity : Making decisions ___ for high tech systems

less

iconicity : Making decisions ___ for low tech systems

more

multimodal communication

unaided+aided

different modalities of communication

unaided+aided examples

• Headshake + saying “no”

• Sign “more” + point to picture

• Use speech generating device + “sign”

what does AAC depend on?

• Environment/setting

• Communication Partner

• Fatigue/Time of Day

• Love Language/Home Signs

• Sensory Load

• Comprehension

what are the different ways the words are organized?

• grid display

• visual scenes

• PODD

• keyboards

grid display

• # of locations

• Static(doesn’t move)/Dynamic(goes to another page)

• Activity/Page(page for a certain activity)

• Semantic-Syntactic

• Parts of Speech

• Fitzgerald Key/color-coded

visuals scenes

• photos

• hot spots

PODD

• Pragmatic

• Organization

• Dynamic

• Displays

  • Partner Scanning

  • Reliable yes/no (has to be accurate)

keyboards

• QWERTY, etc

• Prediction

parts of navigation

• static

• dynamic

• generative

• scripted

navigation: static

• # of locations

• Less=more navigation=harder

• More=less navigation=easier

• Phone example

navigation: dynamic

• Consistent Motor Plans/Motor Planning (even though the screens move around, the buttons stay the same)

• Semantic Compaction

  • MinSpeak

• Logical Prediction

navigation: generative

• Spontaneous

• Novel

• Utterance

• Generation

  • Analytic

navigation: scripted

• Quick Phrases

• Gestalt Language Learners

advantages of aided AAC

• Robust Language

• Doesn’t require knowledge from the listener

• No negative impact on speech development

• Can be used in conjunction with other forms of AAC

disadvantages of aided AAC

• Have to take it with you

• Can be costly $$$

• Not always intuitive

Strategies to plan for the future... while supporting current needs

• High-tech and paper based (leaving places blank)

• Masking, vocabulary builder

• Keyguards, touchguides

• Physically hiding/tape

• Vocabulary Selection (more on this next week)