4/30/2015

Janice Murray, PhD,

Manchester Metropolitan University, 1

LANGUAGE, LITERACY and AAC

Finding a communication system that is…………..right for today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow

(David Beukelman et al, 1985, 1998, 2008)

Additional content

Kind permission of

• Dr Martine Smith, Head, School of Linguistics, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

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Overview – developmental perspective

Deconstructing symbol communication & its impact on language

development

• Defining the context

• Typical and atypical language development

• Symbolized language

Early literacy communication strategies and

activities

• Shared book reading

• Story telling

• Symbols

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Defining ‘literacy’

The key to all literacy is readingdevelopment, begins with ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of

text.

Reading development involves a range of complex language underpinnings including awareness of speech sounds

(phonology), spelling patterns (orthography), word meaning (semantics), grammar (syntax) and patterns of word formation

(morphology)

Generically: ‘the ability to read and write’

‘it includes the ability to use language, numbers, images and other means to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture’

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Deconstructing symbol communication & its impact on language development

Defining the context

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WHO are we talking about?

ExpressiveExpressive AlternativeAlternativeSupportiveSupportive

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Three groups of people using AAC(von Tetzchner & Martinsen, 1992, 2000)

Expressive language group

good comprehension

typically motor impairment

AAC typically permanent to natural speech supporting expressive output

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Supportive language groupExpected to develop speech

Learning disability, severe articulatory disorders

Non-speech system to augment the process of communication, promoting language development through aiding understanding and expressive skills

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Alternative language group

May have little understanding of speech and language

Individuals with significant learning disability, autism, etc

Non-speech system replaces speech for most if not all purposes and supports understanding and expressive skills

Who?

Why is it important to consider WHO?

• Predictions of what is needed today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow

• Aspirations in terms of language access, knowledge, use and scaffold through to literacy

• Activity: think about own children and identify if they fit these ‘theoretical’ groups; do they shift group? If so, why?

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‘The road not taken’ by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth........

………..I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -I took the one less travelled by,

And that made all the difference.

Where are we thinking AAC communication takes place?

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Where?

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Where? ‘our language learning environments’

• Daily scheduled routines

• Unscheduled opportunities

• ‘down time’

• Planned • Spontaneous and reactive• Group versus individual

• Intentionality

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Your task:• Think of a child

• List daily scheduled routines

• List regular/unscheduled communication opportunities

• List ‘Down times’

• Communication roles? E.g. observer• Communication strategies: aided/unaided/multi-

modal • STOP before they venture into discussing WHAT is

communicated

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Where does ‘where’ take us?

What we communicate

• Language knowledge

• Meaning

• Organisation

• Accessing

• Understanding

• Expressing

How we communicate it

• Modalities:– Non/vocal

– visual

– speech

• Style: – content

– form

– use

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WHAT needs overt consideration in the aided communicator?

What we communicate

• Language knowledge

• Meaning

• Organisation

• Accessing

• Understanding

• Expressing

• What does typical language development look like?

• What impact is there in atypical language development?

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Language development:typical and atypical

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Grammar Semantics Pragmatics

Phonology Phonology

Articulation

word order

word structure

concepts

relationships

purposes

NVC

Maya video – part two

Grammar comments?

• Language skill development

• Word to symbol matching

Semantic comments?

• Communication opportunity

• Communication experience

• Language to symbol matching

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Having decided What aspects of language need to be included…….

How will we represent it?

• Challenges, challenges

• Options, options

• Decisions, decisions

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Symbolized language: the HOW

There once was a fisher named Fisher

Who fished for a fish in a fissure

But the fish with a grin

Pulled the fisherman in

Now they all fish the fissure for Fisher

Det var en gang en fisker ved navn FisherHan fisket etter fisk i en kløft

Men fisken den glisteOg dro fiskeren inn

Så nå fisker alle etter Fisher i kløften

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Farao på ferie

I landet Miramarmoravar Farao på feriehos farmora og mormora.

En morgen klatret mormoratil Farao i furua,og så begynte moroa.

Hva ler'u a'? sa farmoraAv mormora, den furia!Hvor ser'u a? sa farmoraI furua! sa Farao

Kom ned igjen! sa farmoratil mormora i furuaI morra, ja! sa mormoratil farmora til Farao

Du ser av vår historieat det å dra på feriei landet Miramarmoratil farmora og mormora,den furia i furua,har Farao hatt morro av!

Morovers - Andrè Bjerke

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How do we represent language through graphic communication?

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The Iconicity continuum

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Symbol type Degree of iconicity

Objects

Colour photographs

Black & White photographs

Miniature objects

Black &White line drawings

Stylised symbol system, e.g.

Blissymbolics

Traditional orthography

Most iconic

Least iconic

Aided Symbol Hierarchy (Mirenda & Locke, 1989)

Schlosser et al , 2013, Harmon et al 2014: static and animated symbols. Findings: animation does not always offer greater

learning and sense-making opportunity28

Apple OR Apple

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Content Form Use

Ideas Concepts Construction Flexibility

Visual

representation

Iconicity Complexity Purpose

Meaning

relationships

Word classes Organization Retrieval

The HOW: A formula for deconstructing symbolic elements: Some video examples:

• Content:

• Form:

• Use:

• Requesting….

• Choose the best sentence

• Multi-modal communication

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Literacy – story sharing and telling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XUzTAH2co0

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CONTENT

FORMUSE

BLOOM & LAHEY, 1978

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CONTENT

FORMUSE

BLOOM & LAHEY, 1978

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CONTENT

FORMUSE

BLOOM & LAHEY, 1978 IMPLICATIONS

• Children are learning multiple codes

• Some of the learning challenges overlap

• Some are unique to the codes

• Children may have difficulty with the ‘common’ or the unique aspects of learning

• Literacy learning is a particular challenge

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• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9R5xfcrZvU

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvEJEA4mkA8

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SHARED STORYBOOK READING

• Significant impact on children’s print knowledge and oral language

• Not so much on analytic skills

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Language of the story

Language of the story

Language of interaction

Language of interaction

Print Print

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Vocabulary

Sentence structure

Language of stories

Control

Active participationAbout print

In print

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SHARED BOOK READING

1. Increase the amount

2. Change the style of interaction

• More intensive

• More interactive

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National Reading Panel, 2001

SHARED STORYBOOK READING

• Significant impact on children’s print knowledge and oral language

• IN AAC: Significant impact on children’s use of aided language1, 3, aided language structure2, vocabulary2-4 and narrative skills4,5

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Bellon-Harn et al., 20081; Binger & Light, 20072; Kent-Walsh & Binger, 20133; Soto & Dukhovny, 20084; Soto et al., 20075

Increasing the amount: what to read

• ‘Important’ stories: content (culture, concepts and vocabulary)

• Sound-based: repeated lines – participation; sound patterns – phonological awareness

• Personal stories

……….

• Self selected, multiple repetitions

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STORYBOOK READING & AAC

Change the interaction style– Balanced discourse1,2

– Active participation2-4

– Multimodal challenges3

• Partner training strategies are effective4

• Changing interaction style yields learning gains4-6

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Light et al., 19941; Peeters et al., 20112; Bellon-Harn et al, 20083; Binger & Kent-Walsh4;

Soto et al., 20075; Soto et al, 20086

The challenges

• Physical

• Linguistic: vocabulary and sentence structure

• Communication: interaction

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Where will symbols fit in?

• What role is most suitable?

– Interaction: ‘balanced discourse’

• About the process (my turn, turn the page, read it again…)

• About the story (e.g., questions, ending, repeated line)

– Story related

• Vocabulary

• Sentence structure (commenting, cloze, carrier phrase…)

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An example:

Smith, M,M (in press) Supporting vocabulary development in children who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Journal of Speech Language Hearing Association Taiwan

- A story book reading activity with a group of children who used aided communication

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Symbolisation to support vocabulary

• Identify the target vocabulary

– Core

– Fringe

– Developmental

• Receptive or expressive?

• Availability of vocabulary

– Model, guided practice, independent use

– Prime, practice and review

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Learning new words

• Phonological task

– Extract

– Identify boundaries

– Hold in STM>WM

• Conceptual task

– Likely meaning and use (grammatical role)

– Keep in Working Memory

• Store both form and function

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For example…

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Have you seen Elvis?

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The WHAT: Selecting targets

• List of 22 potential targets

• Teachers and therapists rank order of priority

• 10 for direct attention

• Scored each word for

– Communicative value Spelling pattern value

– Language importance Sight word value

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Ranking words

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Vocabulary choices

• Communicative ‘power’: enough, away

• Language structure: where, have you seen, -ed(looked, asked)

• Sight word: you, him, have, where

• Spelling: look, fight

• Mapping onto aided system: symbols or words?

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De tre bukkene Bruse som skulle gå til seters og gjøre seg feteThree Billy Goats Gruff that would go to the mountain and make them

fat

Det var engang tre bukker som skulle gå til seters og gjøre seg fete, og alle tre så hette de Bukken Bruse. På veien var det en bro over enfoss, som de skulle over, og under den broen bodde et stort, fælt troll, med øyne som tinntallerkener, og nese så lang som et riveskaft.

Først så kom den yngste Bukken Bruse og skulle over broen.

Tripp trapp, tripp trapp, sa det i broen.

"Hvem er det som tripper på mi bru?" skrek trollet.

"Å, det er den minste Bukken Bruse; jeg skal til seters og gjøre meg fet," sa bukken, den var så fin i målet.

"Nå kommer jeg og tar deg," sa trollet.

"Å nei, ta ikke meg, for jeg er så liten jeg; bi bare litt, så kommer den mellomste Bukken Bruse, han er mye større."

"Ja nok," sa trollet.

Om en liten stund så kom den mellomste Bukken Bruse og skulle over broen.

Tripp trapp, tripp trapp, tripp trapp, sa det i broen.

"Hvem er det som tripper på mi bru?" skrek trollet.

"Å, det er den mellomste Bukken Bruse, som skal til seters og gjøre seg fet," sa bukken; den var ikke fin i målet, den.

"Nå kommer jeg og tar deg," sa trollet.

"Å nei, ta ikke meg, men bi litt, så kommer den store Bukken Bruse, han er mye, mye større."

"Ja nok da," sa trollet.

Rett som det var, så kom den store Bukken Bruse.

Tripp trapp, tripp trapp, tripp trapp, sa det i broen; den var så tung at broen både knaket og braket under den!

"Hvem er det som tramper på mi bru?" skrek trollet.

"Det er den store Bukken Bruse," sa bukken, den var så grov i målet.

"Nå kommer jeg og tar deg," skrek trollet.

"Ja, kom du! Jeg har to spjut, med dem skal jeg stinge dine øyne ut! Jeg har to store kampestene, med dem skal jeg knuse både marg ogbene!"

sa bukken. Og så røk den på trollet og stakk ut øynene på ham, slo sund både marg og ben, og stanget ham utfor fossen; og så gikk den tilseters. Der ble bukkene så fete, så fete at de nesten ikke orket å gå hjem igjen, og er ikke fettet gått av dem, så er de det ennå.

Og snipp snapp snute, her er det eventyret ute.58 59

Key Words can be:

Norsk Engelsk

Tre Three

Bukk/bukker (goat/goats) Goat/goats

Seters Mountain (kind of)

Fete Fat

Bro Bridge

Foss Waterfall

Over Over

Under Under

Troll Troll

Liten Little

Mellomst Middle

Stor Big

Stemme Voice

Vent Wait

Ikke Not/Don’t

Hvem Who

Skrike Yell/Shout

Stille Quiet

Ta Take

Kom Come

Øyne Eyes

Nese Nose

På On

Communicative ‘power’, language structure, sight word, spelling

Elvis targets language structure

• Prime Vocabulary

• Retelling the story

• Identifying missing elements

• Interactive discussions using target forms “have you seen…?” “where is…?”

• Generative narratives, editing and re-telling

• Concept development (I’ve had enough)

• Question forms (where, have you…)

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And finally…..Partner strategies in co-construction

• Modelling

• Topic extension

• Topic switching

• Expansion

• Asking questions: closed or open

• Prompting

• Glossing

• Drilling

• Repetition

• Clarification

• Persistence

• Drilling and practice