Vocabulary Selection
and Message Management
and Message Management
What factors influence vocabulary and message selection?
Various factors influence the types of vocabulary and messages used by different communicators, such as differences in age, capabilities, social roles, cultural background, personality, and medical conditions.
Define unaided AAC and provide two examples. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these unaided AAC options?
Unaided AAC is AAC that individuals produce using only their bodies, without any external equipment or device. Examples are vocalizations or natural speech, gestures (conventional and idiosyncratic), and manual signs (key word signing, fingerspelling, and tactile signing).
1. Vocalizations or speech
Advantages: If the individual retains some intelligible speech, it can be used to communicate some messages to specific partners in some situations. Natural speech can be a highly efficient means of communication that is readily accessible. Speech can be supplemented as needed with gestures or aided symbols (e.g., alphabet supplementation) to increase intelligibility. Even when speech is not intelligible, vocalizations can still be used to communicate for a limited range of purposes (e.g., to communicate emotion or intent, to respond to questions [e.g., yes, no, I don’t know]).
Disadvantage: Since individuals with complex communication needs are unable to rely on natural speech to meet all their communication needs, the range of messages that can be communicated via speech is typically limited.
2. Gestures
Advantages: Gestures are always accessible because they require only the body to communicate; they typically do not require complicated movements and are relatively quick and easy to produce. Most people in a culture understand common contextual gestures (e.g., pointing at a desired object), representational gestures (e.g., miming eating), and conventional gestures (e.g., nodding yes).
Disadvantage: The range of messages that can be communicated is limited, and some gestures can be interpreted only in context.
3. Manual signs
Advantages: Manual sign systems provide access to a wide range of concepts for expression. Since manual signs require only the body, they are always readily available and may be more easily integrated into communication interactions.
Disadvantage: Manual sign systems require complex motor skills—specific hand shapes, positions, orientations, and movements. As a result, some individuals with complex communication skills may have difficulty learning to produce manual signs. Furthermore, manual sign systems are not easily understood by many communication partners; use of manual signs typically needs to be supplemented with other AAC supports.
In practice, when AAC interventions target manual signs, they often involve key word signing, in which the communication partners use manual signs for the critical words in a sentence as they speak. This approach may limit the range of manual signs that are available to individuals with complex communication needs and may thus limit their communication. Key word signing does not provide access to a robust language system.
4. Fingerspelling
Advantage: In theory, individuals who can use fingerspelling have the means to communicate a wide range of messages to communication partners who are familiar with this mode of communication.
Disadvantage: Fingerspelling requires well developed motor skills as well as literacy capabilities. Most communication partners are not skilled in receiving messages via fingerspelling.
5. Tactile signing
Advantages: Tactile signing is a more complex form of manual signs used to support comprehension as well as expression with individuals with deaf-blindness. Theoretically, this approach allows comprehension and expression of an infinite number of messages.
Disadvantage: Tactile signs are difficult to learn; they require well-developed motor, tactile, and language skills. Furthermore, very few people are skilled in tactile signing, restricting the number of potential communication partners.
Why is it important to involve the individual who relies on AAC, family, and other important communication partners in the selection and personalization of AAC supports?
Two major problems identified in the research literature as interfering with use of AAC are
• Lack of fit of the AAC system with the needs and skills of the individual with complex communication needs
• Lack of support from family and facilitators
Many people who rely on AAC experience crime or abuse during their lives. How can AAC systems be designed to deal with crime and abuse at the moment and later during legal and counseling activities?
AAC systems can be set up to ensure that a person who relies on AAC includes the vocabulary needed to report crimes or abuse. Both children and adults should be provided with the communication supports they need to advocate for themselves and report what events are happening in their daily lives, who they are with throughout the day, and how different people interact with them. For adults, vocabulary should support communication related to six contexts: college life, sexuality, crime reporting, management of personal assistants, health care, and transportation. People who rely on AAC should be provided with information about abuse and available supports as well as the information they need to access legal services.
Define aided AAC. What is meant by low-tech aided AAC and high-tech aided AAC? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Aided AAC requires some type of external aid or device to support communication, either low-tech or high-tech.
1. Low-tech aided AAC refers to nonelectronic systems such as communication boards or books of photographs, picture symbols, or written words; alphabet boards; picture exchange systems; and visual schedules.
Advantages: These systems may be more easily understood and used by communication partners than are many unaided forms of AAC (e.g., manual signs). A wide range of low-tech systems are available to fit different people’s communication needs and capabilities. Low-tech systems can be used in many contexts and do not break down as do high-tech systems.
Disadvantages: Since aided AAC requires external equipment, it may not always be readily available for communication. When using aided AAC, the individual has to first locate and then communicate the target concept or message, so aided AAC may be slower than unaided AAC. Aided AAC systems require personalization of the type of representations or symbols used, organization and layout, selection or access techniques, and output in order to meet the needs and capabilities of the individual with complex communication needs. Although low-tech aided AAC can be effective in one-on-one interactions, it is not as effective for communication in large groups or at a distance.
2. High-tech aided AAC refers to electronic technologies with AAC applications (apps) that produce speech, text, or electronic output.
Advantages: AAC technologies typically provide speech, print, and/or digital output that can be easily understood by the partner. These may provide access to a wider range of concepts and messages than most unaided and low-tech aided AAC systems.
Disadvantages: As with low-tech systems, AAC technologies should be personalized (e.g., type of representations or symbols used, organization and layout, selection or access techniques, and output) to meet the individual’s needs and capabilities. In order to use AAC technologies, the individual has to divide attention between the partner, the technology, and the shared activity; the individual has to search for, locate, and then select the target concepts. Unlike low tech AAC, high tech systems are dependent on functioning electronic technology. Like low-tech systems, they may not always be easily available for communication.
What steps are involved in selecting and personalizing AAC systems for individuals with complex communication needs?
1. Summarize the individual’s AAC assessment results.
2. Determine the AAC system requirements based on the individual’s needs and skills.
3. Use feature matching to determine potential AAC systems.
4. Trial potential AAC systems.
5. Select the AAC system(s).
6. Personalize the AAC system(s).
Why do adults who rely on AAC frequently report that social situations are very difficult for them? What type of vocabulary do they need to engage in social interactions?
Individuals who rely on AAC need the following for social interactions.
Greetings are used to initiate social interactions; they are often fairly generic but must be selected with attention to cultural appropriateness, age and status of the people who will be interacting, and variety.
• Small talk is used to initiate and maintain social interactions. It may form the entire basis of some social interactions; for other interactions, small talk may be used to transition into information-sharing.
• Information-sharing encompasses several types of interactions: telling a story; describing a procedure; or having a content-specific, back-and-forth conversation. These interactions are richer in detail, more specific to the individual, and more associated with social closeness than are the other stages of conversation.
• The wrap-up stage consists of remarks meant to end an interaction. Like greetings, these remarks may be somewhat generic but should be chosen with attention to the setting where they will be used.
What is the difference between grid displays and visual scene displays? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these different layouts?
Grid displays represent each language concept with an isolated graphic symbol and organize the symbols in rows and columns, forming a grid pattern.
Advantages: They can accommodate a diverse range of vocabulary concepts; allow for use of a few symbols or many depending on the individual’s needs and capabilities; can be personalized or tailored to use in specific settings/contexts; and support a wide range of communication outcomes.
Disadvantages: Grid displays present language concepts in a decontextualized way and do not capture the contexts in which language is learned and used; they do not preserve the functional relationships among people, actions, and objects as experienced in the real world. This makes them difficult for or unsuited to some individuals who require AAC (e.g., very young children or others at the beginning stages of communication development; adults with severe chronic aphasia).
2. Visual scene displays use integrated scenes, typically photographs, of meaningful and motivating events within the individual’s life, thereby organizing vocabulary concepts according to the activities, routines, and events within which the individual learns and uses language for communication.
Advantages: They have high personal relevance for the individual; they are effective in supporting communication for beginning communicators with developmental disabilities and adults with significant language/ cognitive limitations due to acquired conditions such as aphasia or traumatic brain injury.
Disadvantages: Visual scene displays do not support more advanced language development (e.g., morphology and syntax).
What results should be summarized from the AAC assessment? How are these results used by the AAC team?
What unmet communication needs and priorities the individual has.
This summary includes with whom, where, when, why, about what, and how the individual needs to communicate to meet daily goals.
What the individual’s capabilities are. This summary typically includes motor, sensory perceptual, receptive language, expressive communication, symbol representation, literacy, and cognitive organization capabilities.
What environmental/partner supports exist and what constraints exist. This summary includes any policy, practice, attitude, knowledge, or skill supports the team can leverage to enhance communication, as well as barriers in any of these areas that may constrain the team’s selection of AAC supports.
What are some of the tools that AAC teams might use to help select vocabulary and messages? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these different tools?
Blank sheet. This approach allows informants who know the individual well to record his or her important interests, but it is challenging because it lacks structure.
• Categorical framework. This approach has the same advantages as a blank-sheet approach but provides more structure through the use of category headings (e.g., items of clothing).
• Autobiographical materials, such as journals and social media accounts. These provide direct information about vocabulary and expressions the individual has used in the past.
• Environmental or ecological inventories, created by observing and documenting vocabulary used by the individual’s peers during frequently occurring activities, then reducing this list to the most important words. This approach is helpful for selecting essential functional vocabulary.
• Communication diaries, or records an informant creates that document needed words throughout the course of a day.
• Vocabulary checklists, which make it easy for informants to select potentially needed words; it is important to ensure any checklists used are appropriate to the person’s age, developmental needs, and daily experiences.
• Language models in AAC technology (i.e., vocabulary programmed by the technology’s manufacturer)
Provide three examples of aided AAC symbols or representations. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?
1. Real objects
Advantages: Real objects are concrete and are easily understood and used by beginning communicators.
Disadvantages: They allow for communicating only a limited range of messages and can be physically inconvenient to use.
2. Partial or associated objects (e.g., cat’s bowl to represent feeding the cat)
Advantages: These objects are concrete and relatively easy to learn.
Disadvantages: They allow for communicating only a limited range of messages, can be physically inconvenient to use, and may require teaching the association between symbol and referent. Some associations may be artificial or abstract.
3. Photographs
Advantages: Photographs are more portable than objects, are easily obtained from print or online sources, are easily accessed and personalized using mobile technologies, and have versatile uses and are easier than line drawings for some people to learn.
Disadvantages: Abstract concepts such as descriptors are difficult to represent in photographs; photographs provide static representations and they may need to be supplemented with videos to communicate about dynamic events.
4. Line drawings
Advantages: Line drawings are available as part of many commercial AAC symbol sets (e.g., PCS, SymbolStix), the sets include representations for a wide range of concepts; different symbol sets were developed for use for different populations, purposes, and levels of complexity; some have been translated into many languages; some allow for combining symbols to generate new concepts and more complex messages.
Disadvantages: Careful consideration is necessary to choose appropriate line drawings to meet the individual’s needs; representations in these symbol sets may not be easily understood for some concepts; line drawings may be harder to understand and use than objects or photographs.
5. Traditional orthography (spelling)
Advantages: Traditional orthography allows for communicating any message using the letters of the alphabet.
Disadvantages: Its use depends on literacy skills
What is feature matching? Why is it important?
Feature matching is a collaborative process used to identify the specific AAC options best suited to a particular individual. In feature matching, the AAC team members first determine system requirements based on the individual’s needs and skills. They then rely on knowledge of different available AAC options and the features thereof; they may rely on their own knowledge or consult published resources and/or AAC experts for guidance. They use this knowledge to match AAC options that offer the required features to the individual’s needs, capabilities, and preferences
What are the differences between core vocabulary and personalized vocabulary in an AAC system?
Core vocabulary consists of relatively common words used fairly frequently by a variety of individuals in different situations. Core vocabulary includes
• Function words such as a, the, it
• Content words that occur frequently in everyday communication, such as go, want Core vocabulary is not unique to an individual.
In contrast, personalized vocabulary consists of vocabulary words and messages that are specific or unique to the individual. For example, core vocabulary includes
• Words that name specific people, locations, and activities in the individual’s life (e.g., Jennifer, Ocean City, synagogue)
• The individual’s preferred expressions
Core vocabulary should not be the sole focus of intervention. Vocabulary and message selection should be tailored to the individual and should include personalized vocabulary, based on input from the individual who relies on AAC and/or people close to that person, as well as core vocabulary.
Describe three different ways that AAC grid displays can be organized.
Ways that AAC grid displays might be organized include the following:
1. Schematic grid layouts or activity displays, which organize symbols according to the typical routines and activities of a person’s day. These might be used with preschool children, who tend to organize concepts schematically, and with older beginning communicators with severe disabilities.
2. Taxonomic grid displays, organized by superordinate categories such as food, places, and clothing. These might be used with older children who have developed these types of categorization skills and by individuals who rely on AAC primarily for clarification.
3. Semantic-syntactic grid displays, organized according to the parts of speech and the relationships among them (e.g., agents, actions, descriptors, objects, locatives). This organization may be used for individual AAC displays within a schematic grid system; it is intended to support language development (i.e., communication of more complex messages).
4. Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display (PODD) which combines different organizational strategies and includes symbols for navigational strategies, pragmatic starters, and conversational repair. This approach might be used when an individual needs different grid structures to serve different communication functions (e.g., activity displays for predictable activities, taxonomic displays for less predictable messages).
5. Alphabetical grid displays, organized by letter sequence, like a dictionary. These might be used with literate individuals who rely on AAC to clarify their speech and are able to manage the navigation needed to locate a word or message.
6. Chronological grid displays, organized according to the chronological sequence of events, such as a visual schedule for one’s day. These might be used to help individuals manage day-to-day transitions, especially if doing so is challenging for them.
Describe how the AAC team conducts trials of potential AAC systems. Why is it important to conduct trials?
The team completes the following steps to conduct a trial of each potential AAC system:
1. Identify priority context(s) for the trial.
2. Set up the AAC support for the individual’s use within this context (i.e., appropriate vocabulary, representation, organization, layout, access technique, and output).
3. Introduce the AAC system to the individual and communication partners (e.g., family, educational staff, personal care attendant).
4. Provide instruction in the operational skills needed to use the system.
5. Provide instruction in functional use for communication.
6. Provide opportunities for practice and use over a period of time.
7. Collect data to determine the impact of the system, including data on the individual’s communication performance as well as the preferences and overall satisfaction of the individual, family, and communication partners.
Trials are an important step in determining whether a given AAC system will effectively meet a person’s communication needs and preferences as well as those of the person’s communication partners.
Results will help the AAC team to select the best AAC supports for the individual. When AAC technology is recommended, data from trials may be required by the agency funding the system to establish that it is beneficial to the individual.