Augmentative and alternative communication

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (abbreviated UK) is the German name for the international trade area Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC ). Literally translated the English technical term " complementary and replaced Communication", so that all forms of communication meant the lack of spoken language supplement ( augmentative ) or replace (alternative).

Supported communication is thus the generic term for all educational or therapeutic measures to expand the communicative possibilities of people who do not or hardly spoken language. Examples include the introduction of a picture or symbol cards or a communication board for communication, the supply of a voice output device or to supplement the spoken language by the sign of keywords. In addition, the term refers to the process of communication with agents AAC (eg, in the phrase AAC humans).

The term is not to be confused with the field of communications. Here is a physical and emotional support is given, which is to make it people with impaired voluntary movement possible to point to a communication aid or to use a writing aid or a computer. The Facilitated Communication is controversial because critics doubt that the supported written communications are authentic, ie come from the assisted person.

Target group

Stephen of Tetzchner and Harald Martinsen distinguish three target groups for which AAC can be helpful.

  • People who understand spoken language well, but have inadequate way to express yourself (UK as an expressive tool )
  • People who support the oral language acquisition need or their spoken language skills are only understood when it through an additional tool available (UK as support for the spoken language )
  • People for whom spoken language as a communication medium is too complex and therefore require a suitable alternative (UK as a substitute language )

These target groups include people with:

  • Congenital impairments ( movement disorders due to early childhood brain damage, mental retardation, and others)
  • Progressive disease ( muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( = degenerative disease of the motor nervous system ), multiple sclerosis, and others)
  • Acquired damage caused by accidents ( traumatic brain injury, among others ) or stroke
  • Temporarily restricted linguistic possibilities ( facial injuries, etc.)

It is clear that AAC on a wide range of people with very different types of disability aims and wishes to provide channels of communication both at a high level of complexity, as well as basal understanding opportunities and signs first joint with severely disabled people searches.

Objectives and basic principles

When AAC is the success of the communication process in the foreground. People with inadequate or lack of spoken language as early as possible to successful communication experience is provided, so that their communicative development is not affected by constant failures. As a supplement and replacement of spoken language body's communication capabilities are also used such as electronic or non-electronic communication aids. However, it comes at the AAC is not just about the provision of tools, but the concept provides a comprehensive special education and therapeutic monitoring of the communicative development of people with inadequate spoken language skills. Equally important are the attitudes of communication partners and their skills in interviewing and other external conditions. e.g. institutional features.

AAC has the contact made ​​explicitly to establish itself and the target direction in some form a common understanding system, jointly understood characters. These characters can somatic expressions, sounds, words, objects, pictures or symbols, touch, movements, gestures, scents, sounds, tones, inter alia, be - is crucial that these characters gain a common meaning for the communication partners involved.

Time of intervention

Again and again, there have been concerns that an earlier could lead to use of AAC to the fact that the development or further development of phonetic skills is hindered. So said the oralistische approach that alternatives to the spoken language is only appropriate when years of effort to the development of spoken language skills unsuccessful. Supported communication was therefore considered only as a last resort, which ranked subordinate to traditional speech therapy measures.

Meanwhile, however, the communicative approach has prevailed both in the scientific debate as well as in the practical work. Thus, it represents the most important goal to achieve an undisturbed as possible communicative development in a human without an effective spoken language. And communicative development based on successful communication, whether based to spoken language, body's possibilities or communication aids are used. It is therefore important to let people without adequate oral language experience joyful and effective communication as early as possible, in the knowledge that AAC may well be a way to promote the spoken language skills and to make himself so gradually superfluous. At the same time there will always be people for whom AAC is the most important, perhaps the only effective communication medium.

Development of the UK in Germany

The first promising efforts in practice there since the early 1970s (eg, Belvedere School in Cologne, Martin School in Ladenburg, and by Etta Wilken 1974 by the Leibniz University of Hannover). Since 1981, various courses contributed to the symbolic language BLISS to developing the UK. Nowadays Bliss is rarely used, since modern computer programs offer icon collections. Creating communication boards oversimplify (eg the Boardmaker program ) In addition, now include a variety of portable computers available language that can be controlled from either picture symbols, icons or characters.

In 1990, the German -speaking section of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication ( ISAAC ) was founded. First scientific studies were conducted in Germany by the Dissertations and Habilitation Wachsmuth (1986 ), Gangkofer (1993 ), Adam (1993 ), Brown (1994 ) performed. The number of scientific (including Roth Mayr 2001; Renner 2004; Location 2006; Seiler boilers Home 2008; Boenisch 2009) and the practice-oriented publications on the UK continues to rise. Since 1996, first published in 1990 as an association magazine of ISAAC Germany magazine Supported communication via the von Loeper publishing a broad readership is also available. Also at the Universities of AAC is increasingly accepted as a necessary part of the training of prospective funding educators. So there at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg Chair of AAC.

Elements of the UK

  • Use of endogenous forms of communication (eg, facial expression, gesture, gestures, eye movements, Lautierungen )
  • Use of non-electronic communication aids (eg communication boards or books with photos, images or symbols )
  • Use of electronic communication aids (eg simple or complex voice output devices)

A multimodal communication system, which consists of different forms of communication and thus the function of a mold, such as the voice output device is desired, reduced.

Equally important, however, are also the learning of communication strategies in dealing with the supportive forms of communication as well as entertainment and setting the communication partners and their skills in interviewing.

Endogenous forms of communication

Under the body's own communication options all forms are taken that can be accomplished with the help of your own body. The body's most important means of communication is one's own voice and also for many AAC people remain loud utterances of a central means of communicating. In addition to the voice but there are numerous other ways in detail are as endogenous communication possibilities mentioned:

  • Lautierungen
  • Spoken language remains
  • Eye movements
  • Facial expressions
  • Pointing movements
  • Body movements
  • Yes / No characters ( individually or conventional)
  • Sign
  • Finger alphabet
  • Individual systems ( eg letters in the air reviews)

Endogenous forms of communication in the context of AAC are identical or similar to the nonverbal communication of course speaking people in many cases. However, there is a need to systematically and partly to use this form of communication in such an unusual way that it does not make sense to equate these two terms for non-speaking people.

Of particular importance in the body's forms of communication comes to the use of sign.

Sign in using AAC

Gestures as part of AAC have a long tradition that extends back to the time in which this art was indeed already separated into practice, but as a theoretical building did not exist in Germany. In numerous charitable institutions in which people living with mental disabilities, has been successfully working in the 1970s with different gestures catalogs.

When using gestures with people who, though hear well, but for various reasons do not develop or is not sufficient phonetic skills, there are major differences to work with deaf people: Thus the modern deaf education assumes that the sign language and not spoken language represents the native language of deaf people. The German Sign Language ( DGS) should be understood as a completely independent speech system, which in many elements different from the spoken language. Insofar the spoken language with its syntax and its grammatical peculiarities not the skeleton is at the DGS is based.

In AAC, however, the spoken language is clearly the scaffold, is behaving accompany the. Each individual word is not implemented in sign (just like in the LBG system = spoken language Accompanying gestures takes place ), but only the central tenets of the sentence, the keywords will be implemented sign language. In this respect, it is also misleading, if communication is spoken of in the area of Supported that the German Sign Language ( DGS) is employed. It is in these cases, in fact, only the rich vocabulary of the DGS used, but not the actual specifics of this language.

In addition to using the vocabulary from the DGS are in Germany in AAC also simplified gestures (eg the catalog "Look at my hands! " Or the so-called sign - supported communication ( GuK ) by Prof. Etta Wilken ) used.

Non- electronic communication aids

The communication aids is to distinguish between non-electronic and electronic aids. Inter alia used in the field of non-electronic means of becoming:

  • Communication units with specific objects (such as shoe boxes in which is an object, each representing a specific activity)
  • Communication boards (eg laminated DIN -A -4 boards on which photos, picture symbols or letters / words are glued )
  • Communication books (eg, ring folders or photo albums in which the key for the user vocabulary is arranged thematically presented with photos, picture symbols or words)
  • Communication aprons (aprons, on which is mounted by means of Velcro symbols )
  • Theme boards and Communication Poster (picture panels that are mounted in the dining area, on the toilet wall at the changing table)
  • Single picture or word cards (e.g. on a metal ring that can be attached to the belt )

Electronic communication aids

Electronic communication aids are devices that inputs (via the keyboard or other input devices) transform into spoken language or written language.

We distinguish between stationary and portable (or mobile ) electronic communication aids. Stationary systems consist of a PC with communication software and possibly with custom input options (eg, touch screen, Fußmaus, head pointer, alternative keyboard). For portable systems, a distinction between devices that have been specially developed as a voice output devices for people with disabilities, and between refitted as a voice output device notebook or handhelds.

Furthermore, a distinction is made between systems with loud voice and / or written language edition, the written language output is either a display or a printer module. The spoken language is spoken either in the establishment of the appliance by a competent person spoke loudly through a built-in microphone on the device ( so-called natural language output - digitized voice ) or it is synthetically generated in the device ( " Computer Language "). Both options have advantages and disadvantages, such as digitized speech sounds natural, but needs a lot of memory. Utterances using digitized speech are also limited to previously defined ( and recorded ) sounds, while over devices with synthetically generated language new expressions are possible. Devices with modern software often offer both options.

Electronic communication aids with voice output is also called voice output devices, or - more rarely - talkies. Colloquially, they are also referred to as " computer language ". Commonly is also the name " talker ", after the genus name of the voice output devices of a large resource company ( according to the same principle, are often called "Tempo" according to the paper handkerchiefs ).

Many voice output devices do not have normal keyboard, but are either controlled with a touch screen or a user interface that consists of many large push-buttons. The keys are called " fields " or " cells" and the entire user interface " level ". Many devices have several levels, among which you can select when needed. If a device, for example, has 32 ​​fields and four levels, one can store 128 statements it. Newer devices allow an individual number of fields.

Another way to increase the number of callable statements, is the coding: One statement is not assigned to a key, but a key combination. On a device with 32 fields would be with this principle, then 32 × 32 = 1024 utterances available.

Many VOCAs not, or not exclusively work on written language basis. Instead, working with images and icons that the user selects to create a statement. This is not only because many users have no written language skills, but is also due to the fact that the communication speed is increased, if not every word has to be spelled out.

There are a variety of controls for electronic communication aids, such as pressure and toggle switches, front bar, mouse, trackball, joystick, light sensor, proximity sensor, surface joystick suction and Blasschalter, head mouse or eye control. With these elements, the fields can be directly driven (so-called direct selection ) or indirectly (various scanning procedure).

Especially in the area of control methods decisive advances have occurred in recent years. Today, it is also possible for a person with very little head control and severe spastic movements, using eye control to operate a complex language computers.

Oralism Grammar Computer icon Blissymbols
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