Chapter 3 - Communication Symbols & Rate Enhancement

Question 1

Symbol

Answer 1

– represents or stands for something else.

e.g. golden arches

Question 2

Referent

Answer 2

• what a symbol stands for – refers to.

e. g. md’s itself

Question 3

Iconicity

Answer 3

• This describes the symbol. It relates to how easy it is to guess the referent. Is it an abstract or concrete symbol? Does it look like what it represents? Ex: “ice cream”.

Question 4

Symbols that are easily “guessable” are called –>

Answer 4

“transparent” symbols.

Question 5

Symbols that are hard to recognize are

Answer 5

“opaque” -

Question 6

written words are considered______

Answer 6

opaque.

Question 7

Symbols that are between these two (transparent and opaque) are:

Answer 7

“translucent” - these are learnable and need additional information to be able to guess the referent.

Ex: “V” for victory

Question 8

Aided symbols

Answer 8

• physical materials used, pictures, real objects, communication boards, devices, etc.

Question 9

Aided symbols: Disadvantages (2)

Answer 9

• may forget them

- reduces spontaneity.

Question 10

Aided symbols: Advantages (1)

Answer 10

– may be more understandable than some unaided symbols

Question 11

Unaided symbols

Answer 11

– no physical material. Consists of gestures, facial expressions, vocalizations, verbalizations, signing.

Question 12

Unaided symbols: Disadvantages (1)

Answer 12

– difficult for unfamiliar listeners to understand.

Question 13

Unaided symbols: Advantages (4)

Answer 13

• quick
• low cost
• durable
• available

Question 14

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Answer 14

1) Natural gestures
2) Emblems
3) Illustrators
4) Affect displays
5) Regulators
6) Adaptors

Question 15

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Natural gestures –>

Answer 15

• gestures we use everyday - hands, total body or face

Question 16

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Emblems –>

Answer 16

• gestures that represent entire messages - ex: shrug of shoulders to indicate “I don’t know” and holding finger to head to indicate suicide.

Question 17

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Illustrators –>

Answer 17

• gesture to supplement the message –used with speech to convey more meaning.

Question 18

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Affect displays –>

Answer 18

• facial expressions or body movements that represent feelings, emotional states.

Question 19

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Regulators –>

Answer 19

• nonverbal ways we regulate behavior - use of eye contact to indicate turn taking behavior

Question 20

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

A. Gestures

Adaptors

Answer 20

• gestures used mainly when alone and aren’t intentionally used to communicate.

Question 21

Examples of some subtle nonverbal, nonvocal communication behaviors (compiled from Arlene Kraat, 1986).

Answer 21

1. mutual eye gaze toward or away from speaker or object/action; ability to maintain eye gaze-to initiate interaction, request, comment, question, change topics, etc.
2. Facial expression such as smile-happy, scowl/head no-displeasure, large smile.wide eyes-excitement, raising eyebrows-question.
3. Turning head or body toward item/activity/location of interest to request or choose; and turning away to indicate refusal or what is not of interest.
4. Change in movement and tone of body and extremities, signaling happiness, displeasure, awareness of new person or sounds, readiness to respond, initiation of interaction, gain attention, etc.
5. Pointing, reaching toward, touching, taking, showing, giving, items of interest to request or choose item/action (e.g. taking partner’s hand to request something) rejecting by pushing, throwing, shoving, etc.
6. Tugging, touching to gain attention, take a turn, request, etc.
7. Moving (e.g. crawling toward, walking, scooting, leaning, etc.) toward and away from people/items/activities to request and reject.
8. General body posture (e.g. relaxed, slumped, head up, etc.) to indicate interest, disinterest, request, reject, etc.

Question 22

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

B. Vocalizations and speech (3)

Answer 22

• vocal/auditory signals - some are unintentional, others are intentional – you sometimes might have to work on making them intentional:
• vocal noise, click, buzzer, bell, to gain attention, signal a message such as help or my turn, etc
• differentiated vocalization ( by variation in pitch, loudness, prosodic patterns, duration) to signal happiness, displeasure, excitement boredom, agreement, disagreement.

Question 23

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

C. Speech

Answer 23

– Can be used by communication partners - when doing auditory scanning

Question 24

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS

D. Gestural codes

Answer 24

• gestures coded to communicate something
  1) Amer-Ind - 250 vocab/gestures, in combination-can convey many messages
  2) Tadoma Method is used with dual sensory impairments, both deafness & blindness.

Question 25

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS E. Manual Sign systems Considerations for use (3):

Answer 25

1) How intelligible are the signs 2) Motoric complexity – research has shown that signs with these features are easiest to learn - those that require contact between the hands, are symmetrical (both hands make the same shape), are produced within the user's visual field, require a single, simple hand shape and that require the same hand movement be repeated. 3) It is possible to combine signing with other techniques. Speaking and signing at the same time is called Total Communication or TC.

Question 26

UNAIDED SYMBOLS: GESTURES & VOCALIZATIONS E. Manual Sign systems Types of manual sign systems (3)

Answer 26

1) ASL-American Sign Lang. - developed specifically for deaf comm. Has own set of rules for grammar. 2) Signing Exact English - developed as an alternative to Signed English. 3) Key Word Signing - Sign only key words.

Question 27

Aided symbols can be (4):

Answer 27

1) tangible 2) representational 3) abstract 4) orthographic

Question 28

Aided symbols: 1.Tangible symbols

Answer 28

- you can hold them, touch them.

Question 29

Aided symbols: 1.Tangible symbols (4)

Answer 29

1) Real objects - the most tangible & iconic. If you don't know where to start with a client, start here. 2) Miniature objects - controversial, somewhat abstract - not as concrete. 3) Partial objects - part of the activity. Ex. Wand from bubbles 4) Artificially associated and textured symbols - You select some shapes or textures that you intentionally associate with a referent - green square to represent cafeteria or apple to represent cafeteria.

Question 30

Aided symbols: 2. Representational Symbols --> Photographs -->

Answer 30

- real life pics, or from catalogs or magazines. Certain people respond better to certain kinds of pies.

Question 31

Aided symbols: 2. Representational Symbols --> Line Drawings (6)

Answer 31

1) . PCS (Picture Communication Symbols) - one of the easiest to learn. 2) . Rebus Symbols - developed for children learning to read, phonetically based, pic may not be related to content. Ex. - May use picture of bumble bee for the verb "be" 3) Picsyms - more abstract than PCS, slightly more difficult to learn. 4) PIC (Pictogram Ideogram Communication Symbols) - white on black drawings, used with people who have figure-ground difficulty (controversial). 5) Blissymbolics - abstract, created for international code system. 6) Other pictoral systems - Pick `N Stick

Question 32

Aided symbols: 3. Abstract Symbol Systems

Answer 32

1) Yerkish Lexigrams - came out of a study with chimps. Made up of 9 geometric forms used alone or in combination. White and black. 2) Non-SLIP (Non-Speech Language Initiation Program) - Used with global aphasics and autism - made of plastic chips varying in size, shape and color and have the word on the back side.

Question 33

Aided symbols: 4. Orthographic Symbols

Answer 33

- orthography has to do with written characters/ letters Braille - Used for people with visual or multi/sensory impairments.

Question 34

Aided symbols: 5. Combined aided and unaided systems

Answer 34

Makaton Vocabulary - combines speech, manual signs and graphic symbols. Used widely in England.

Question 35

``` RATE ENHANCEMENT (3) Why do we need to use rate enhancement techniques? ```

Answer 35

1) We speak at approx. 150-250 words per minute. 2) An AAC user may be able to produce a message at approx. 15 words per minute. 3) To help overcome this we use rate enhancement techniques.

Question 36

RATE ENHANCEMENT I. Message encoding (grouping)

Answer 36

- encoding is defined in the dictionary as "putting a message into code"-in other words, creating a message for someone else to read, hear, etc. In AAC terms, message encoding techniques involve learning to produce the message faster and more accurately.

Question 37

RATE ENHANCEMENT I. Message encoding There are several techniques used to help speed up message encoding. (5)

Answer 37

A. Alpha or letter encoding 1. Salient letter encoding 2. Letter Category encoding B. Numeric Encoding - simple assign numbers to the messages. C. Morse Code D. Iconic Encoding. F. Color encoding

Question 38

Message Prediction techniques (3): (like what your phone does when you text)

Answer 38

A. Single letter prediction B. Word level prediction 1. Word Pattern Prediction - based on the frequency of word combinations. 2. Linguistic Prediction - predicts based on the syntax of our language. C. Phrase/Sentence Level Prediction - Predicts phrases or sentences that might follow.