The purpose of the thesis was to find out teachers' perception of the phenomenon of alternative and complementary communication (AAC) and how AAC enables pupils to develop their communicative and linguistic abilities. The study has a qualitative approach and it is based on a phenomenographic research approach and a socio-cultural perspective. The empirical data collection was done through interviews with eight teachers. The teachers work at or have experience of special needs schools for pupils with intellectual disability and pupils who lack verbal communication.  To analyze the material, thematic analysis was used. Through the interviews, it emerged from the teachers' statements that the phenomenon of AAC supports pupils who lack verbal communication to learning and social interactions. This, in turn, enables participation and independence. Based on the analysis of the results, four levels of description categories of AAC were made visible. Description category one is the most basic level and description category four the most advanced. Based on the results of the study, it is made visible that students should be offered communicative and linguistic development through the support of individualized AAC, practiced on their communicative and linguistic abilities based on the proximal development zone. It emerged from the result that categories one and two do not develop students' linguistic abilities in a qualified way, since within these categories of description, communication consists primarily of one-word sentences and does not contain grammar, word classes or sentence structures. Under category one you find AAC methods where students are offered communication through single images and objects.  Categories three and four include communication tools that contain linguistic development possibilities, such as alphabets, text, written language and speech synthesis that enable multi-word sentences. Based on the informants' statements, the need for AAC methods that develop the students' linguistic abilities is made visible. It also emerged that the collaboration with habilitation and speech therapists was a crucial factor in being able to offer students communication tools from categories three and four.

Objective: Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) aimed at restoring communication to people with severe neuromuscular disabilities often use event-related potentials (ERPs) in scalp-recorded EEG activity. Up to the present, most research and development in this area has been done in the laboratory with young healthy control subjects. In order to facilitate the development of BCI most useful to people with disabilities, the present study set out to: (1) determine whether people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and healthy, age-matched volunteers (HVs) differ in the speed and accuracy of their ERP-based BCI use; (2) compare the ERP characteristics of these two groups; and (3) identify ERP-related factors that might enable improvement in BCI performance for people with disabilities. Methods: Sixteen EEG channels were recorded while people with ALS or healthy age-matched volunteers (HVs) used a P300-based BCI. The subjects with ALS had little or no remaining useful motor control (mean ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised 9.4 (±9.5SD) (range 0-25)). Each subject attended to a target item as the items in a 6. ×. 6 visual matrix flashed. The BCI used a stepwise linear discriminant function (SWLDA) to determine the item the user wished to select (i.e., the target item). Offline analyses assessed the latencies, amplitudes, and locations of ERPs to the target and non-target items for people with ALS and age-matched control subjects. Results: BCI accuracy and communication rate did not differ significantly between ALS users and HVs. Although ERP morphology was similar for the two groups, their target ERPs differed significantly in the location and amplitude of the late positivity (P300), the amplitude of the early negativity (N200), and the latency of the late negativity (LN). Conclusions: The differences in target ERP components between people with ALS and age-matched HVs are consistent with the growing recognition that ALS may affect cortical function. The development of BCIs for use by this population may begin with studies in HVs but also needs to include studies in people with ALS. Their differences in ERP components may affect the selection of electrode montages, and might also affect the selection of presentation parameters (e.g., matrix design, stimulation rate). Significance: P300-based BCI performance in people severely disabled by ALS is similar to that of age-matched control subjects. At the same time, their ERP components differ to some degree from those of controls. Attention to these differences could contribute to the development of BCIs useful to those with ALS and possibly to others with severe neuromuscular disabilities.

No description available.

Denna studies syfte är att bidra med kunskap om några pedagogers erfarenheter av att stötta kommunikativ utveckling hos elever som läser ämnesområden inom grundsärskolan. De frågeställningar som legat till grund för studien är: Vad betraktar pedagogerna som möjligheter respektive hinder för elevernas kommunikationsutveckling? Hur beskrivs elevernas roll i processen med kommunikationsutveckling? Hur kan pedagogers erfarenheter förstås utifrån specialpedagogiska perspektiv? Digitala semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med åtta pedagoger verksamma i grundsärskolan. Materialet transkriberades och tematisk innehållsanalys genomfördes samt analys utifrån följande specialpedagogiska perspektiv: ett relationellt perspektiv, ett kategoriskt perspektiv, ett kritiskt perspektiv och ett dilemmaperspektiv. Vårt resultat visar att pedagoger betraktar AKK-verktyg som den främsta möjligheten för elevers kommunikationsutveckling. Pedagogerna beskriver att de har erfarenheter av att använda bland annat bildstöd i form av till exempel pekkartor, scheman och digitala kommunikationsverktyg samt tecken som stöd i undervisningen. Det framkommer även att det är viktigt att ha en fungerande samverkan med vårdnadshavare och andra insatser kring eleven för att kunna skapa de bästa kommunikativa miljöerna för eleverna. Av resultatet framgår också vikten av utbildning och kompetens hos pedagoger inom kommunikation vilket återspeglar mycket av tidigare forskning. Brist på utbildning och kompetens leder till hinder för pedagoger att anpassa undervisningen utifrån elevers kommunikativa behov. I resultatet framkommer att elevernas roll i processen med kommunikationsutveckling främst beskrivs som behövande och att pedagogerna ser det som sin uppgift att kompensera för elevernas kommunikativa svårigheter med olika stödinsatser där AKK är den främsta insatsen. I vår analys ser vi att ett relationellt perspektiv är det mest framträdande perspektivet bland annat genom att relationen mellan pedagog och elev lyfts fram av pedagogerna som avgörande för elevernas kommunikationsutveckling. / The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge about some pedagogues experiences of supporting communicative development in students with moderate or severe intellectual disability. The questions that formed the basis of the study are: What do pedagogues consider opportunities and obstacles for students' communication development? How is the students' role described in the process of communication development? How can pedagogues experiences be understood from a special education perspective?Digital semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight pedagogues active in the elementary special school. The material was transcribed, and thematic content analysis was carried out, as well as analysis from the following special education perspective: a relationship-based perspective, a categorical perspective, a critical perspective as well as a dilemma perspective. Our results show that pedagogues regard augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools as the main opportunity for students' communication development. The pedagogues describe that they have experience of using, among other things, visual support in the form of, for example, point maps, schedules and digital communication tools as well as sign language as support in teaching. It also appears that it is important to have a functioning collaboration with guardians and other efforts around the student in order to create the best communicative environments for the students. The results also show the importance of education and competence of pedagogues in communication, which reflects much of previous research. Lack of education and competence leads to obstacles for pedagogues to adapt teaching based on students' communicative needs.The results show that the students' role in the process of communication development is mainly described as needy and that the pedagogues see it as their task to compensate for the students' communicative difficulties with various support efforts, where AAC is the main effort. In our analysis, we see that a relationship-based perspective is the most prominent perspective in that the relationship between pedagogues and student plays a large role in students' communication development.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / There are children in this world who are silenced by disability. The struggles of these children as they attempt to find a voice are difficult and often considered insurmountable. With advances in computer technology, devices are available to assist the child to have a voice. This voice is not found easily or acquired without difficulty. Even after finding and acquiring the necessary device, the child requires education and support to learn to use the device effectively. Challenges may be specific to the child’s disability, the support systems involved with the child, or even the technology itself. It is the adults in the child’s life, and the child’s family in particular, who provide needed support and assistance in helping him/her find an effective way of expressing his/her ideas. Families are an essential component in assisting their children to learn to use the device. My pilot study examined parents’ likes and dislikes of their child’s communication device. The preliminary data from that study illuminated several factors that increased the struggles of these children and their families as they work together to learn the device. These factors include financial, emotional, and developmental costs; as well as the lack of appropriately trained professionals; and excessive time lapses from evaluation to receipt of the device. The purpose of this study was to give a voice to the experiences of families around a child’s use of one type of augmentative and alternative (AAC), a speech generating device (SGD), by analyzing family’s experiences of the child’s use of a SGD as seen through the lens of the child’s primary caregiver. Interpretive phenomenologic methods for data collection and interpretation were used to elucidate the experience of families who have a child who is currently using or who has previously used a SGD as a method of communication. One cannot learn about the lived experience of the family without first listening to their story and allowing the family to share how their child’s use of a SGD affected the life of their family.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur förskollärare arbetar med AKK i förskolan för att alla barn ska få sina röster hörda samt bli inkluderade i verksamheten oavsett förutsättningar. I studien användes Nilholms dilemmaperspektiv som utgångspunkt. För att undersöka hur förskollärare ser på användandet av AKK utifrån vårt syfte gjordes en kvalitativ studie där vi intervjuade åtta förskollärare från sju olika förskolor. Materialet samlades in via ljudupptagning som transkriberades och kodades för att sedan analyseras utifrån en tematisk analys där teman framkom. Resultatet visar att många förskollärare inte har fått någon utbildning inom AKK och därför känner sig osäkra på hur de ska använda hjälpmedel utifrån barnens behov. De förskollärare som har utbildning kände sig trygga i användandet av AKK. Resultatet visade också att förskollärare försöker använda olika slags hjälpmedel som passar barngruppen utifrån bästa förmåga. Vidare visar resultatet att förskollärare tar ett ansvar utifrån förskolläraruppdraget och ser till barnens perspektiv för att anpassa hjälpmedlen för att inget barn ska bli utpekat eller exkluderat. Slutsatsen är att förskollärare gör sitt bästa för att skapa förutsättningar för kommunikation och inkludering för de barn som brister i det verbala språket med hjälp av olika AKK hjälpmedel. Däremot önskar många förskollärare utbildning inom ämnet för att kunna arbeta på bästa sätt med AKK. Slutsatsen vi drar är att utbildning och kunskap ligger till grund för att kunna arbeta med AKK i förskolan, samt att det är viktigt att se miljön och omgivningen som ett problem och aldrig barnet.

No description available.

This thesis investigates best practices for teaching and supporting bilingual augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users as they develop their communication skills. Although there are guidelines that inform best practices for teaching and supporting bilingual AAC users, there is very little information on what these practices look like. This thesis investigates the techniques and strategies that bilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who practice in Catalunya, a bilingual community in northeastern Spain, use to evaluate, teach, and support people who use pictogram-based AAC modalities to communicate. To do this, six SLPs who practice in Catalunya participated in interviews regarding their practices when teaching bilingual AAC users. These interviews were analyzed thematically, based on an iterative, inductive coding process. Analysis revealed that most bilingual AAC users have access to an AAC system in only one language of the community. This may reflect a monolingual mindset (Tonsing & Soto, 2020), and limits the opportunities for engagement with both the larger community, and the individuals’ home communities. This is particularly true for those who speak a language other than those of the community with their families. Despite this, AAC users seem to understand both languages, develop bilingual identities, and “feel bilingual.” Additionally, despite the lack of access to multilingual AAC systems, professionals employ practices that show respect for the home language, whether it is Castilian Spanish, Catalan, or another language. The results suggest that the monolingual mindset is a deeply-ingrained part of educational and therapeutic systems in both monolingual and bilingual communities, even when individual practitioners respect and value their clients’ home language(s) and bilingual identities.

Due to the advancement in AAC technology, set of medical conditions can be assisted using high-tech AAC, serving more patients with varying communication needs. There need to be more studies about the acceptance of HT-AAC among individuals with complex communication needs, by understanding their attitude and behavioral intentions towards this technology. This thesis aims to extend previous literature and address the gap by exploring the perceptions of SLPs' regarding the acceptance of high-tech AAC and the perceived pitfalls associated with using HT-AAC. An exploratory research method combined with qualitative approach was chosen to answer the research questions and serve the purpose of the study. SLPs recognize the importance of HT-AAC in various aspects of their patients' lives. The findings highlight the need for comprehensive support, specialized training, and addressing implementation challenges to maximize HT-AAC acceptance and usage. By addressing these aspects, HT-AAC can enhance the communication and overall quality of life for patients with communication difficulties. / På grund av framstegen inom AAC-teknik kan uppsättning medicinska tillstånd hjälpas med hjälp av högteknologisk AAC, vilket betjänar fler patienter med varierande kommunikationsbehov. Det behöver göras fler studier om acceptansen av HT-AAC bland individer med komplexa kommunikationsbehov, genom att förstå deras attityd och beteendeintentioner gentemot denna teknik. Den här avhandlingen syftar till att utöka tidigare litteratur och ta itu med klyftan genom att utforska SLPs uppfattningar om acceptansen av högteknologisk AAC och de upplevda fallgroparna som är förknippade med att använda HT-AAC. En explorativ forskningsmetod kombinerad med kvalitativ ansats valdes för att besvara forskningsfrågorna och tjäna syftet med studien. SLPs erkänner vikten av HT-AAC i olika aspekter av deras patienters liv. Resultaten belyser behovet av omfattande stöd, specialiserad utbildning och hantering av implementeringsutmaningar för att maximera acceptans och användning av HT-AAC. Genom att ta itu med dessa aspekter kan HT-AAC förbättra kommunikationen och den övergripande livskvaliteten för patienter med kommunikationssvårigheter.