1. Author: Jack Slemenda Converse College, SC
Date submitted to deafed.net – February 4, 2008
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2. AUGMENTATIVE COMMUNCIATION DEVICES Jack Slemenda – Converse College

3. Effective communication does not just happen
Effective communication does not just happen. It takes considerable effort from both the sender and the receiver of information to ensure that communication attempts accomplish their intent. Those who experience communication disorders encounter exceptional difficulty participating in the communication process. Employing communication devices to support the communication process can significantly improve their successful participation.

4. VARIOUS NAMES FOR COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES
AAC – Aided Augmentative/or alternative communication systems
Assistive Devices
Adaptive Technology
Interactive Symbolic Communication
Visual Communication

5. What is an augmentative communication device?
These devices of technology can range from:
A board with pictures representing a student’s daily needs
Words, phrases, sentences symbolically represented on a communication display as photographs, line drawings, tangible objects or letters
Electronic speech synthesizers (prerecorded speech, or segments of words, computers and portable electronic devices.
Augmentative communication devices help individuals in producing and/or understanding speech.
Aided Communications are frequently described to mediate communication for the nonspeaking child.

6. Who needs augmentative communication devices?
Individuals who have acquired disabilities as a result of: traumatic brain injury, stroke, ALS, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury.
Individuals that are verbal or nonverbal. Visual tools help students express themselves better. One of the primary purposes of ACD’s are to enhance student understanding.
Individuals who are not able to meet their communication needs without adaptive assistance.
Those with congenital causes of severe communication disorders: mental retardation, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, autism, specific language disorders and developmental apraxia of speech.

7. Why do individuals need Augmentative Devices or Assistive Technology?
Assistive Technology Products can enable people with disabilities to accomplish daily living tasks, assist them in communication, education, work or recreation activities; in essence, to help them achieve greater independence and enhance their quality of life.
Assistive Technology devices can help improve physical or mental functioning, overcome a disorder or impairment, help prevent the worsening of a condition, strengthen a physical or mental weakness, help improve a person's capacity to learn, or even replace a missing limb.

8. Do these devices replace a person’s speech?
It is important to remember that an individual’s full communication capabilities should be utilized. This would include using any residual speech or vocalizations, gestures, facial expression, eye gaze, signs and communication aid.

9. Will the use of a device interfere with a child’s vocal development?
Research indicates that alternative/augmentative communication facilitates spoken language by increasing interactions, improving language skills and providing a voice output model for speech.

10. Selecting the proper device for a child
Devices are designed or selected to address a child’s present communication needs.
Creative strategies are implemented to gradually expose the child to various devices.
Classroom needs determine the content of individual systems.
Planning strategies that are long-range in their focus but still keeping with the child’s current motor or visual abilities.
Children are provided with individualized communication devices that go forward with them as he/she graduates to a different program.

11. Special Advice for using Augmentative Devices……..
Proper training for teacher, child and parents
Allow time for the child to become familiar with the device (what does each symbol mean, how do I operate the device)
Allow the child to use the device for all situations (classroom, play, dorm, home)
Don’t limit the functions of the device; provide plenty of options
Allow the child to use the device with peers; not just with the teacher
Maintain the device (clean, batteries, etc.)
Plan for long term usage (the device should ‘grow’ with the child)

12. Products Available
Boardmaker is a graphics database containing over 3,000 Picture Communication Symbols (from PCS Books I, II, & III) in bitmapped clip art form. The program allows you to:
Make a professional looking communication display in minutes.
Quickly find and paste pictures into your display with a mouse click.
Make the pictures any size and with any spacing.
Print and/or save your display on disk for later use.
Print displays in black & white or color (if you have a color printer).
Store, name, retrieve, resize, and paste scanned or custom-drawn pictures.
Make worksheets, picture instruction sheets, reading books, journals, or posters. These may be made in Boardmaker or by pasting the pictures in your desktop publishing program.

14. Language Features of BoardMaker
Each symbol is translated into multiple languages and may be found and printed in any of the languages. This means that you can build a communication board in any language without being able to speak it. Symbols may be copied with 1) no text above the symbol, 2) one language above the symbol, or 3) any two languages above the symbol. Additional languages may be added.
Pictures in Boardmaker for Windows come translated into 24 languages.

15. AudiSee Assistive Listening Device
The AudiSee is a technological breakthrough in assistive listening devices. It provides students with a hearing loss the opportunity to access the entire message, by combining their remaining hearing capabilities with visual cues. Several studies have demonstrated that the combination of visual and audio cues is strongly correlated to message comprehension.
How does it work?
The AudiSee system is intended for oralist people with hearing loss i.e. people with a hearing loss that communicate through spoken language and who usually have a Cochlear implant or hearing aids.
Item: G-1400 AudiSee
Purchase: $5,100.00

16. The teacher wears a headset with a miniature camera and a microphone
The teacher wears a headset with a miniature camera and a microphone. The image and voice of the teacher is then transmitted to a small monitor placed on the student's desk or to a standard TV set placed in front of the classroom.
In the classroom, what affects the hearing-impaired student most?
• Surrounding noises (other students, chairs and desks moving) • Difficulty in seeing the teacher's face due to: • The teachers movements • Distance between the teacher and student • Poor lighting • Fatigue due as a result of efforts from deciphering the teacher's speech

17. Why use the AudiSee System
Why use the AudiSee System? The AudiSee allows the student to: • Have uninterrupted access to the teachers face; • Use his/her remaining hearing capacities through the use of their current FM system or the AudiSee system; • Devote less energy on deciphering the message, therefore leaving more for learning; • Be less stressed by knowing that he/she now has complete access to what is being said in class. The AudiSee allows the teacher to: • Move around the class freely; • Address all the students in the class, instead of being obliged to stand in front of the student with a hearing loss; • Develop a privileged bond with a hearing-impaired student; • Avoid having to repeat instructions. Research and studies are showing this product is providing at least 30 to 50 percent more information!

18. ChatBox Assistive Communication Device
ChatBox and ChatBox-DX, voice output communication devices, combine the use of meaningful pictorial images with the latest technology to enable people who cannot speak to communicate easily and quickly with their families, friends and others. The newly enhanced ChatBox is designed for use by any individual who experiences cognitive and language limitations, brain disorders, cerebral palsy or conditions that result in temporary loss of speech. The addition of a deluxe model, ChatBox-DX, opens up a world of capabilities to individuals with visual difficulty or very poor motor skills.

19. Additional Products Light Box Tactile Treasures Soft Touch
Move Touch Do
Speech Computers
iCommunicator Augment
ChatBox
BIGmack
Voice-in-a-box
Voice-Output
Tech/Talk
Cheap Talk
Go Talk
Hand Held Voice
Recipe Pictures
Hip Talk
Listen to Me
VoicePal

20. References/Resources
Goossens’, Carol., Crain, Sharon Sapp., Elder, Pamela S. (1994). Engineering the Preschool Environment for Interactive Symbolic Communication, 1-15.
Hodgdon, Linda A., (1995). Visual Strategies for Improving Communication, 1-20.
Drezek, Wendy (1995) Move, Touch, Do, 8-11.
Poppe, Karen., Elder, Venus (1997). Tactile Treasures, 1-50.