AAC 101.txt

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AAC 101 The Basics 
KATC Webinar 5 � 3 � 12 


 

 The greatest compliment that was ever 
paid me was when someone asked me 
what I thought, and attended to my 
answer. 


- Henry David Thoreau 


TODAY 

�Communication 
�Assistive 
Technology 
�Augmentative 
and Alternative 
Communication 


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Communication
What it is ALL about! 


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We want our children to succeed 
and be the best they can be. 


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Functional and Effective Communication is essential 
to every part of life! 


Vision 


Making effective communication, 
a human right, accessible and 
achievable for all 


ASHA, 2009 


How is communication important to education? 
.Speech and language skills are essential to 
academic success and learning. 
.Language is the basis of communication 
.Reading, writing, gesturing, listening, and 
speaking are all forms of language. 
.Learning takes place through the process of 
communication 
.The ability to communicate with peers and 
adults in the educational setting is essential 
for a student to succeed in school. 



VanTatenhove 


You have to learn to 
communicate before you 
can communicate to learn. 



Definition
Communication is the process of using a 
shared medium to share our ideas, thoughts, 
and feelings with other people and having 
those ideas, thoughts, and feelings 
understood by the people we are talking 
with. 


Communication requires that all parties have 
an area of communicative commonality. 

There are auditory means, such as speaking, 
singing and sometimes tone of voice, and 
nonverbal, physical means, such as body 
language, sign language, paralanguage, 
touch, eye contact, or the use of writing. 

Communication 
Communication
A good working definition for effective 
communication is to share meaning and 
understanding between the person sending 
the message and the person receiving the 
message. 


Communication is a two-way process. The 
information goes out to a person on the other end. 
There is a sender and a receiver. 

interaction

? 

 

Is 
communication a simple 
skill? 


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Communicating is not an isolated series of one 
skill, it involves several skills. 

Speaking involves not only getting your 
message across but also being able to listen 
and understand what others are saying 
(active listening) and observing the verbal 
and nonverbal clues in order to monitor the 
effectiveness of your message. 


? 

How much 
communication 
is 
through our words 
alone? 


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.Verbal communication is only 10 to 30 
percent of the message. 
.Nonverbal communication is 70 to 90 percent 
of the sent/ received message. 



? 

Does a speech/ 

language 
disorder really 
affect my 
student at 
school? 

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How learning is affected
Children with communication disorders 
frequently do not perform at grade level. 
They may struggle with reading, have 
difficulty understanding and expressing 
language, misunderstand social cues, avoid 
attending school, show poor judgment, and 
have difficulty with tests. 


How learning is affected
Difficulty in learning to listen, speak, read, or 
write can result from problems in language 
development. 

Problems can occur in the production, 
comprehension, and awareness of language 
sounds, syllables, words, sentences, and 
conversation. 

Individuals with reading and writing problems 
also may have trouble using language to 
communicate, think, and learn. 



Language Disorder
.When a person has trouble understanding 
others (receptive language), or sharing 
thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely 
(expressive language), then he or she has a 
language disorder. 



Speech Disorder
.When a person is unable to produce speech 
sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems 
with his or her voice, then he or she has a 
speech disorder. 



Pragmatics
.Using language to greet, inform, demand, promise, 
or request (different communication functions) 
.Changing language depending on the needs of a 
listener or situation (code switching) 
.Following rules for conversation and storytelling 
.Taking turns, staying on topic, rephrasing, 
personal space 
.Using verbal and nonverbal signs, facial 
expressions and eye contact 





Present Ways of Communication
1.Oral Speech 
2.Symbolic Representation (symbols, text) 
3.Reading & Writing Ability 
4.Non-Oral Communication 
5.Communication Effectiveness 
6.Communication Partners 
7.Communication Settings 
8.Message Needs 
1.Functional 
2.Social 
3.Informational � Sharing � Conversation 
4.Developmental & Educational/Vocational Needs 




5/3/2012 

AAC Assessment 


Communication Development
Things to Think about� 

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Communication Development
Age 

Typical Development 

Birth-3 Months 

�Makes pleasure sounds (cooing, gooing). 
�Cries differently for different needs. 
�Smiles when sees you. 
�Pre-intentional communication (perlocutionary stage, 
prelingual, Potential communicative acts, Nonsymbolic 
behavior, Prelanguage, Preverbal, Prelinguistic) � The 
caregiver assigns meaning to the child�s behaviors � for 
example, a father interprets a baby�s cry as wanting to 
be held � interpretation makes the cry communicative 


 

4-6 Months 

�Babbling sounds more speech-like with many 
different sounds, including p, b and m. 
�Vocalizes excitement and displeasure. 
�Makes gurgling sounds when left alone and when 
playing with you. 
�Continued perlocutionary stage development 





Development Continued
Age 

Typical Development 

Eight-nine 
months 

�Intentional but not yet symbolic communication 
(illocutionary stage/continued prelingual) - Children begin 
using signals to deliberately communicate with others 


Three main purposes: 

Behavior regulation (protest by vocalizing loudly when her 

 mother puts her to bed) 

Social interaction (wants a hug and reaches hands up as 

 father goes by) 

Joint attention (looks back and forth between parent and 
dog is approaching) 

9 months -1 
Year 

�Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds such 
as "tata upup bibibibi." 
�Uses speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep 
attention. 
�Imitates different speech sounds. 
�Has 1 or 2 words (bye-bye, dada, mama) although they 
may not be clear. 





Development Continued
Age 

Typical Development 

13 months 

�The transition to the intentional and symbolic ( 
locutionary) with communicating intentionally with 
referential words or signals (communication pictures/ 
signs) 
. Words are mapped onto preverbal intentions; the 
transition to using words referentially is a gradual one 


 

. 
The capacity to symbolize or make one thing 
represent something else involves a complex 
interplay of emerging abilities between cognitive and 
language maps. 


Linguistic behavior � as a child�s first word production 
with word defined as a spontaneously produced form 
that is phonetically consistent and used to convey a 
consistent meaning 

�First words are symbolic yet not fully linguistic 
�The period corresponding to a child�s development 
of a first lexicon of approximately 50 different word 
productions the transition fro prelinguistic to linguistic 
communication 





Assistive Technology 
(I thought you were going to talk about AAC) 

 


AT
.Assistive technology is one of the services 
which can be provided in a special 
education program under the Individuals 
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 
.The requirements of IDEA say that 
students who need assistive technology 
are entitled to the aids and devices and the 
assistive technology services that are 
necessary for the student to benefit from a 
free, appropriate public education. 


. 

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AT Continued 


.Some examples of AT devices are: 
manual and motorized wheelchairs, 
augmentative communication 
devices, reaching and grabbing aids, 
ramps, lifts, grab bars and adapted 
vehicles. 
.Assistive technology enables people 
with disabilities to participate fully in 
every aspect of life � at school and 
work, at home, and in the 
community. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

Augmentative Communication 
Continuum 

Narrow vertical

AAC is AT:
Any item, service or strategy that 
an individual with disabilities uses 
to help them be more successful 
or more independent at work, at 
home, at school, or in the 
community. 


AAC
Augmentative and Alternative 
Communication 

for Individuals with 

Complex Communication Needs 


1. To augment natural speech production 

2. Provide a means for communication when 
other means are not available or 
diminished. 

3. To promote speech/language development 

4. To address written communication or text 
needs when handwriting is impaired 


When does a child need AAC? 
.A child whose speech is not developing within 
the realm of what is considered normal, or is 
not likely to develop normal speech due to a 
pre-existing condition, is a potential 
candidate for AAC. 
.Even when it is unclear whether or not a child 
will eventually develop normal speech, and 
this is frequently the case, the child may still 
benefit from AAC. 



Recent research has supported that 
the use of augmentative 
communication encourages natural 
speech production. 

In some instances, augmentative 
communication devices serve as an 
effective interim communication 
strategy as the child develops more 
effective natural communication. 


�AAC is a means to enhance 
overall communicative 
effectiveness 
�Natural communication will 
always be encouraged and will 
remain an integral aspect of the 
total communication 
(multimodal) approach 


ASHA, 1989 

 


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Why is this important?
30 � 50% of 
children with 
ASD will 
remain 
NONVERBAL 


Myths about AAC
.AAC is a �last resort� in speech 
language intervention 
.AAC hinders or stops further speech 
development 
.Children must have a certain set of 
skills to be able to benefit from AAC 



Myths about AAC
.Speech-generating AAC devices are 
only for children with intact 
cognition 
.Children have to be a certain age to 
be able to benefit from AAC 



No piece of 
equipment in 
an of itself 
eliminated 
delay in 
language 
development. 

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What are the 
Prerequisites for Using 
AAC? 


NONE !

.AAC intervention is the process of 
enhancing and optimizing daily functional 
communication across all communicative 
contexts. 
.This process takes time, as well as hours of 
work by the augmented communicator and 
the team of stakeholders providing and 
supporting the needed intervention and 
follow-up activities and services. 



.Developing or re-developing functional 
communication skills involves the use of 
multi-modal communication strategies, 
based on each individual. 
.That is, an augmented communicator may 
learn to communicate using varied 
approaches including speech, 
communication boards, signs, gestures and 
high-tech devices. 



Details, details, details
Coming to understanding the �terms� of AAC 


Range 
of 
AAC 

 

 

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Augmentative communication 
includes a wide range of 
"technology" from no-tech 
options such as use of manual sign 
language to high-tech complex, 
computerized speech generating 
communication devices. 


Range
.AAC unaided and aided range of technology 
used as an AAC intervention. (HILL) 


DescriptionOfInterventionsTable

FEATURES 


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AAC Device Features 
Generally, the selection of the "most 
appropriate" communication system is a 
process of matching the abilities and needs 
of the user to the "features" of the AAC 
device. That is the meaning of providing the 
�best fit�. 


The following features of the AAC device or system should be considered: 
.Communication potential 
.Access options 
.Symbol system(s) 
.Display 
.Device Output 
.Portability 
.Compatibility 
.Dedicated or computer-based 
.Durability and support 
.Cost 



Displays 
.Static � does not change (you do the work) 
.Dynamic display - 
.There are several methods for "navigating" 
through a the vocabulary available through a 
dynamic display. 
.The display changes as different items are 
activated 





Three basic methods are used to represent language in AAC systems.
.single meaning pictures - each picture means 
one word. 
.alphabet-based systems - spelling, word 
prediction, and letter codes 
.semantic compaction - based on multi-
meaning icons 


Romich, Vanderheiden & Hill, 2000 



Vocabulary 


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Core and Fringe Vocabulary
# of Core Words 

% of Total Words 
Communicated 

50 

40 � 50% 

100 

60% 

200 

70% 

400 

80% 




Core Vocabulary
Preschool Non Disabled 
Children Vocabulary 

.http://aac.unl.edu/VLNONAACCU2.html 


Dolch Word lists 

.http://www.kidzone.ws/dolch/index.htm 



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Fewer than 5 percent of all 
words used by toddlers are 
picture producers 


 

 

Banjee, Dicarlo & Stricklin, AAC, 2003 


Fringe Example
.Cookies � 
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8aprCNnecU 
.I like you when you give me cookies. Yeah. No. 
Because I like you, only like you get cookies for 
me. Yeah, I love you too, but I don�t like you all 
the time. � 
.16/36 � 44% 


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To CONSIDER!
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Considerations 

.Can child intentionally 
communicate? 
.Can child use different 
means of communications? 




 


Communication Skill Development
Communication should be taught: 

.In a natural environment 
.With a focus on the learner 
.To promote communication in a 
functional way 





.caring atmosphere, 
.multi-modality communication and 
.multicomponent communication and 
.encourage the closeness and worth of the individual 
.Readiness to learn 
.Joint attention/ shared focus 
.Auditory signals 
.Child Centered Activities � Parent guided 
.Natural consequences 
.Consistent motor planning 
.Core vocabulary 



Strategies
.Time delay 
.Sabotage 
.Out of reach 
.Inadequate portions 
.Choice making 



MP900409652[1]
AAC services an extension of U of L WCEC AAC clinic 
Giving everyone the opportunity to communication 


WEBSITE 

https://
sites.google.com/
site/aacatuofl/home 


 


WEBSITE 

https://sites.
google.com/site/louisvilleaacproviders/ 


 

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WIKI 
page 

http:/
/aac123.
wikispaces.
com/ 


 


This list is not exhaustive and inclusion does not imply endorsement of the organization or the context of the Web site by ASHA. 
.AAC Institute 
.International Society for Augmentative and Alternative 
Communication 
.Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of 
North America 
.Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication 
Enhancement 
.State Assistive Technology Programs 
.See Also: 
.AAC: Information for AAC Users 
.AAC: Benefits of Speech-Language Pathology Services 
.Augmentative Communication: A Glossary 
.AAC: More Than Three Decades of Growth and Development 
.Augmentative and Alternative Communication Decisions