Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Complex Communication Needs

1. How AAC systems and communication needs identified?

1.1. Multidisciplinary team: professionals that conduct an AAC assessment.

1.2. Comprehensive ACC assessment: identify, measure, and describe factors affecting communication, the effects of the communication impairment on the individual’s activities and participation.

1.3. Opportunity barriers: imposed by other people and prevent an individual’s participation in communication activities.

1.4. Access barriers: can prevent participation in communication activities, but they stem from the capabilities, attitudes, and resources of the person using ACC.

2. communication services/assistance

2.1. Aid: Refers to a type of assistive device that is used to send or receive messages.

2.2. Electronic: electronic AAC aids are usually referred to as speech generating devices.

2.3. Speech generating device: used to produce words and phrases as an alternative to speaking in situations where he or she is not understood.

3. Common causes of complex communication needs:

3.1. Parkinson’s disease: is a slowly progressive disease of the basal ganglia in the central nervous system.

3.2. Stroke: occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures.

3.3. Cerebral palsy: a neuromotor impairment resulting from trauma or damage to the developing child before, during, or soon after birth.

3.4. Dementia: degenerative disease that can affect communication.

3.5. Autism spectrum disorders: are a group of developmental disorders characterized by impaired social interaction; difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication; and unusual repetitive or severely limited activities and interests.

3.6. Traumatic brain injury: is an acquired injury to the brain caused by a traumatic event.

3.7. Childhood apraxia of speech: a speech disorder characterized by the inability to control the purposeful speech movements and sequences of speech movements.

3.8. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease is a rapidly progressive disease.

3.9. Intellectual disability: having significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills.

4. Social roles and purpose of communication:

4.1. Information transfer: communicate to give and to receive information.

4.2. Social closeness: is another reason people interact and communicate with one another.

4.3. Social etiquette: purpose of communication; has to do with being polite and conforming to the social conventions of one’s culture.

5. Improving communication ability

5.1. Communication competence: requires significant time and effort.

5.2. Emerging communication: Individuals at the point of emerging communication have no reliable method of symbolic expression and are limited to non-symbolic methods of communicating.

5.3. Context-dependent communication: Individuals at the point of context-dependent communication have reliable symbolic communication but communicate in only a few contexts or with only a few partners.

5.4. Independent communication: Individuals at the point of independent communication are usually literate and interact with both familiar and unfamiliar environments

5.5. Communication environments: Where individuals chose to communicate.

5.6. Communication roles: complete participation in all desired social aspects.

5.7. Social roles: the roles each person has in society.

5.8. Communication partners: People the individual choses to communicate with.

5.9. Complex communication needs: emphasizes the importance of speech, language, and/or cognitive abilities for a person’s participation in society rather than focusing solely on the disorder.

5.10. Augmentative and alternative communication: approach to treatment, with a focus on understanding how the disorder affects individuals daily lives and identify ways to help them.

5.11. AAC System: consists of four different components that are used to enhance communication.

5.12. Strategy: is the third component of an AAC system and is the way symbols are effectively and efficiently conveyed.

6. How communication is displayed?

6.1. Fixed display: remains the same before and after a symbol is selected.

6.2. Hybrid display: use a combination of display types on the AAC system.

6.3. Dynamic display: are visual and change after a symbol is selected.

6.4. Visual scene display: are pictures, photographs, or depictions of virtual environments that represent situations, places, or experiences.

6.5. Multimodal: when people use a combination of communication modalities to meet their intended communication goals.

7. Symbols and different types

7.1. Symbol: is something that stands for something else.

7.2. Dynamic: symbols require movement or change to understand their meaning.

7.3. Static: symbols that do not require movement or change to understand their meaning.

7.4. Aided: Symbol requires a device or accessory that is external to the body to transmit a message.

7.5. Unaided: Symbols require only one’s body.

7.6. Iconicity: is the degree to which symbols visually resemble what they refer to.

7.7. Opaque: symbol has little resemblance to what it represents.

8. Messages are transmitted through:

8.1. Technique: Refers to the way in which messages are transmitted – that is how an individual selects or accesses symbols

8.2. Direct selection: is a direct motor act that is not dependent on time.

8.3. Indirect selection: individuals with severe motor or sensory impairments can also access their AAC Systems using this.

8.4. Scanning: A selection set of symbols are present in a predetermined configuration by either a communication device or a communication partner

8.5. Coded access: requires an individual to use a sequence of movements to select a symbol from a set.