Augmentative Communication
| Many children with special needs have impaired communication. These children may benefit from augmentative communication. Augmentative Communication is the different or alternative methods used to help people with disabilities communicate with others. People can have difficulty with communication for many different reasons such as physical disabilities, motor co-ordination difficulties, cognitive disabilities, or learning disabilities. These problems can make the production of speech difficult or impossible. | ||
| There are several methods of augmentative communication. | ||
| Symbols & Pictures | ||
| Pictures, symbols, line drawings, and photographs. All these things can be used to convey a message. A person who can not speak, for whatever reason, may be able to point to, or hand a picture of a desired object, to another person. Simply pointing to a picture can alert wants and needs. Many children with Autism, or other disabilities which have an impact on communication skills, use a program called PECS or PCS. This is Picture Exchange Communication System. To use this program, a child needs to be able to understand what the picture or symbol represents. This may be more difficult in those with severe cognitive issues or visual impairments. PECS is an augmentative communication system where a person is taught to give a picture to someone to communicate with them. The drawback to using pictures/symbols, is that you have to have a different picture for everything you want to "say". Carrying around a ton of pictures can be cumbersome. Finding the exact picture you want can be difficult, and teaching those with cognitive impairments to understand what a flat 2 dimensional photograph or a line drawing can be very hard. | ||
| Signing & Gesture | ||
| Most people think of sign language or gesturing, as only used by those who are deaf or hearing impaired. While many users of sign are hearing impaired, many people who hear normally, but have trouble with verbal communication also use sign or gesture. Most people are familiar with ASL (American Sign Language) or SE (Signed English). But many children with special needs also have physical disabilities which make it difficult to do proper or true sign. Those with conditions such as cerebral palsy, or other conditions which limit the use of their arms or hands may be able to use modified signs or gestures. The key is to use consistency. Find a movement which the child is able to learn to physically do, and always use that gesture to represent that particular word or idea. For example, the sign for "finish" is to hold 5 fingers out with both hands palm in, then flip them so that palms and tips turn out. Someone who can not mentally or physically do these actions, may simply rub their hands together. Or the sign for "music" is to extend the left arm in front of you, palm up, and swing the right hand back and forth over the left forearm without touching. "Music" could also be conveyed simply by placing your hands cupped over your ears, to look like earphones. You could bop your head at the same time. If physical involvement is severe, simply touching the ear could represent "music" or "listen". | ||
| Voice Output Devices | ||
| Voice output devices can be essential for people who have difficulty speaking. They do exactly as the term implies. It uses spoken voice to speak for the person. There's a wide variety available. They range from smaller than your hand to big as a desktop, single message to 32 or more message choices. Some are used with picture selections. Some can also double as switches. There are many different voice output devices on the market. | ||
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