Denna studie undersöker, via ett experiment, om musik stödjer inlärning av Tecken som Alternativ och/eller Kompletterande Kommunikation. Människor kommunicerar på olika sätt och musik kan vara motivation för lärande. I Förenta Nationernas Konvention om rättigheter för människor med funktionsnedsättning står det om rätten till kommunikation. Människor med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning behöver ofta stöd av omgivningen i sin kommunikations- och språkutveckling. Deltagarna i studien var vuxna med nära relation till personer med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning som använder eller behöver tecken som alternativ och/eller komplement för sin kommunikation. Deltagarna (40 stycken) var indelade i fyra grupper. Grupperna tilldelades slumpvis fyra olika betingelser: musik eller inte respektive känd eller okänd sång. Sammanlagt genomfördes tre tester av teckenkunskaperna av 20 olika tecken. Testerna genomfördes vid tre tillfällen utspritt över fem veckor. Resultatet visade att deltagarna som för sin inlärning av tecken fått stöd av musik kunde flest tecken efter fem veckor. I studien ges en bakgrund till begreppen musik och musikterapi, kommunikation och språk samt forskning och diskussion av dessa begrepp. Studien ger även förslag på framtida forskningsfrågor inom ämnet. / This study examines, through an experiment, if music supports the learning of manual signs. People communicate in different ways and music can be motivation for learning. In the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities one can read about the right to communication. People with intellectual disabilities often need the support from the environment in their communication and language development. The participants were adults with close relation to people with intellectual disabilities who use or need manual signs as an augmentation and/or an alternative to their communication. The participants (40 in all) were divided into four groups. The groups were randomly assigned to four different conditions: music or not each condition with known or unknown song. In total, in three tests the skills of manual signs of 20 different signs were investigated. The tests were performed three times spread over five weeks. The results showed that participants in their learning of manual signs supported by music had retained most manual signs after five weeks. The study provides a background to the concepts of music and music therapy, communication and language, as well as research and discussion of these concepts. The study also provides suggestions for future research issues in the subject.

When an individual’s ability to communicate with speech does not function as expected, in many cases, augmentative and alternative communication, (AAC), can serve as a support interaction with other persons. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a specific child’s communicative possibilities and abilities develop during the first months after introducing a speech generating device. The study’s main participant Alex is 6 years old and has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. Alex also has confirmed limitations regarding gross and fine motor skills and further investigation will examine the presence of childhood apraxia of speech. Two play situations were videotaped at approximately four months intervals and then analysed via conversation analysis and multimodal interaction analysis. At the study’s initial recording session Alex’ communication consisted of gestures and body language together with isolated vocalisations. There were no observed occurrences of spoken words. At the start of the study Alex had been using their speech generating device, SGD, for approximately six weeks. At the end of the study the SGD is found to have been integrated in Alex’ communication during the observed play situations. Its role as a communicative resource has developed from being primarily a device which the child presses in order to answer direct questions, into being used to organise, for example, turn taking, initiate new play rounds or asking questions, by way of other types of manipulation. In addition, Alex’ use of vocalisations has increased and become more situation specific. Baseline measurements were not conducted in this study, wherefore it is not possible to indicate the implementation of an SGD as the reason for Alex’ communicative development. Continued research is needed in order to achieve individual and optimum solutions for all who are dependent on support in their communication. / När en individs möjligheter att kommunicera med tal av någon anledning inte fungerar som förväntat kan i många fall alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation, förkortat AKK, fungera som ett stöd i interaktionen med andra människor. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett specifikt barns kommunikativa möjligheter och förmågor utvecklas under de första månaderna efter att ett högteknologiskt AKK introducerats. Studiens huvuddeltagare Alex är 6 år och har diagnoserna autism i barndomen och ADHD. Alex har även konstaterade grov- och finmotoriska begränsningar och vidare undersökningar kommer att undersöka förekomst av verbal dyspraxi. Två leksituationer videofilmades med cirka fyra månaders mellanrum och analyserades sedan med samtalsanalys och multimodal interaktionsanalys. Vid studiens inledande inspelning utgjordes Alex kommunikation av gester och kroppsspråk samt enstaka vokaliseringar. Inga talade ord förekom. Vid studiens slut konstateras att hAKK vid den observerade leksituationen integrerats i Alex kommunikation. Dess roll som kommunikativ resurs har utvecklats från att främst vara en apparat som barnet trycker på för att svara på direkta frågor, till att genom annan typ av manipulering exempelvis organisera turtagning, initiera en ny lekomgång och ställa frågor. Även Alex användning av vokaliseringar i leksituationen har ökat och blivit mer situationsspecifika. Alex mamma och en av hens förskollärare intervjuades och besvarade skattningsfrågor. Resultaten visar att de båda noterat en generellt ökad vilja till kommunikation hos Alex samt lyfter frågan om vilka begränsningar som fortfarande finns gällande Alex kommunikativa möjligheter vid studiens slut. Baselinemätningar saknas i denna studie, varför det inte är möjligt att ange implementeringen av hAKK som orsak till Alex kommunikativa utveckling. Fortsatt forskning behövs för att kunna uppnå individuella och optimala lösningar för alla som är beroende av stöd i sin kommunikation.

Talet är något som många människor tar för givet, men för en del barn och vuxna är detta något som inte är lika självklart. Människor med språksvårigheter kan få hjälp och denna hjälp kan börja redan i förskolan. Alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation, AKK, är ett samlingsbegrepp av olika hjälpmedel som kompletterar talet. Teckenstöd och grafisk AKK är de två vanligaste AKK. Teckenstöd tecknar man med händerna samtidigt som du säger ordet. Grafisk AKK är bilder och symboler där man till exempel gör bildscheman över dagen. Tidigare forskning har visat att personal som gått en kurs inom alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation har börjat tänka mer på hur de kommunicerar med personer med språksvårighet och har också börjat använda sig mer av olika sorters AKK. Även de barn som inte har språksvårigheter gynnas av att använda alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation då det ger extra tydlighet i kommunikationen. Om alla barnen lär sig att använda alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation så kan de även använda denna i leken tillsammans med barn med språksvårigheter. I leken härmar barnen varandra både verbalt och icke-verbalt vilket innebär framsteg i kommunikationen.   I mitt examensarbete har jag intervjuat fyra förskollärare i olika kommuner i centrala och östra Värmland. I intervjuerna så framkom att arbetet med alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation varierar mycket, beroende på vilket behov som ansågs behövas. Inställningen till alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation var positiv bland alla de intervjuade men det upplevdes svårt att mäta förbättringen då detta är en lång process. Det framkom också att utbildning i kommunerna inom alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation inte var så stor men att det fanns en önskan bland samtliga förskollärare att lära sig mer om detta. / The spoken language is something that many people take for granted, but for some children and adults this is something that is not obvious. People with language difficulties can get help and this help can start already in preschool. Augmentative and alternative communication, AAC, is a collective concept of various aids that supplement the speech. There are two different types of AAC, aided systems and unaided systems. With unaided systems you use your body and hands to sign word while saying them out loud. Aided systems are pictures and symbols, for example, you create picture schedules throughout the day. Previous research has shown that staff who have taken a course in augmentative and alternative communication have started to think more about how they communicate with people with language difficulties and have also started to use more of different kinds of AAC. Even those children who do not have language difficulties benefits from using AAC as it provides extra clarity in communication. If all children learn to use AAC, they can also use this in the play together with children with language difficulties. In the play, the children mimic each other both verbally and non-verbally, which leads to progress in communication.  I have interviewed four preschool teachers in different cities in central and eastern Värmland. In the interviews, it became apparent that the way of working with AAC varies. The variation is caused by the individual extend to which the need for AAC is seen. The attitude towards Augmentative and alternative communication was positive among all interviewees. However, the measurement of improvements caused by AAC is being seen a challenge. The interviewees stated that the long period of time which is needed when using AAC makes it difficult to measure possible results. The preschool teachers participating in the interviews were of the opinion that education in their respective cities within AAC shows room for improvement and that there was a desire among them all to learn more about the concept.

Service delivery to children with severe disabilities (CSDs) in developing countries share some common characteristics. These include inaccessible services due to the fact that the majority of services are located in a few large cities, the focus of services are usually on school-age children (with few for pre-schoolers), many services require specialised staff and high technology equipment that is not always available and professionals who tend to work in isolation with minimal integration between services. A particularly vulnerable group within the sphere of CSDs are beginning communicators because of their inability to articulate their needs, feelings and rights. Programmes to specifically address these communication needs by equipping them with the necessary skills to interact and participate in society, are very limited. Often the first contact that primary caregivers of a CSD have with professionals, is with the community health nurse. Furthermore, they often remain the only professionals who provide continuous support and assistance to these caregivers. It is therefore clear that these nurses need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills in order to assist caregivers in dealing with their children with severe disabilities. This can be done by training these nurses (through multiskilling) to function as transdisciplinary professionals. Furthermore, a need for appropriate materials for service delivery to this population also exists. Consequently the BCIP (Beginning Communication Intervention Protocol) was developed. The BCIP addresses four important communication domains, namely communication means (including objects, photographs, manual signs, PCS symbols and a simplified 4-option digital speaker), functions (namely informational functions e.g. requesting more, requesting help, etc. and social functions, e.g. greeting, drawing attention to self, etc.), partners (both adults and peers) and the deliberate creation of communication opportunities (e.g. by providing small portions, placing desired items out of research) etc. Care was taken to ensure culture sensitivity and the authenticity of the BCIP. Twenty community health nurses were trained in the application of the BCIP. Training employed adult learning principles and was one week long, followed by three follow-ups that were conducted in situ (at two weeks, six weeks and five months post-training). Multiple measurements were used to evaluate the knowledge and skills acquired after training, namely questionnaires, structured interviews, skill demonstrations (which were video recorded and rated by the researcher and an independent rater) and a focus group. Results indicated that the BCIP training is relevant in bringing about a significant change in the targeted domains, namely knowledge and skills. Peripheral behaviours (namely attitudes, job satisfaction and type of service delivery provided) were all rated high at the onset of the research and thus quantitative data failed to show improvement. On the other hand, qualitative data from the focus group suggested improvement. / Dissertation (PhD (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of alternative and augmentative communication in the education of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and impaired communication skills. The theoretical part defines the concept of communication and speech, describes the development of communication in childhood and represents various categories of impaired communication skills. The next chapter defines the ASD, its classification and speeches. Furthermore, the theoretical part presents individual alternative and augmentative communication systems and focuses on their advantages and disadvantages in the education of children. The empirical part of the work is processed in the form of qualitative research, where the outputs are represented by case studies based on observations and interviews, which are focused on communication systems used by students with the ASD. The main goal is to focus on children with the ASD and their ability to use the alternative and augmentative communication systems in their development and education.

The aim of this master thesis is to analyse, design and implement a multi-platform mobile application for alternative and augmentative communication of people with special education needs and disabilities. This application based on iOS and Android platform allows making sentences composed of pictograms with voice output. The application is implemented in Java & HTML5 based multi-platform framework Oracle ADF Mobile. Application has been verified by case study in native environment of people with intellectual disability. The main contribution of this thesis is to include and verify the requirements of computer therapy (in sense computer as therapy), which aim to provide solution for proper design a usability of implementation for described target group of people.

The structure of graphic symbol utterance constructed by children with typical development and also children with little or no functional speech often differs considerably from spoken utterances. Whether the structure of graphic symbol utterances constructed by these two groups is influenced by similar factors is as yet unknown, as a systematic comparison between the two groups of children has not been conducted. This study aimed to investigate and compare the graphic symbol utterances arranged by children with little or no functional speech with those arranged by their typically developing peers when they were matched according to receptive language age. The utterances were analysed in terms of three variables, namely content, order and intelligibility. The results indicated that children with little or no functional speech do not differ significantly to children with typical development on tasks of graphic symbol utterance construction. The results also indicated that children with higher receptive language age start to use the spoken language word order as a model when arranging graphic symbol utterances more than children with lower receptive language age. The findings suggest that receptive language age plays a role in graphic symbol utterance constructions. The use of structures that do not follow spoken language may be explained by effects of the visual modality. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

The thesis is aimed to development of communication of students at special primary school. Special primary school is creating unique conditions for education of students with lower intellectual competences. The aim of education is equip students by knowledges and skills for integration into the society. The theoretical part of thesis consists of four chapters. The first of them specifies the term mental disability, classifies type of mental retardation, characterizes specific characteristics of person with mental disability and presents possibilities primary education mental disabilited students. The second and the third chapter compare psycho-motion development and ontogenezis of speech to mental handicapped children with children without disability. The fourth chapter characterizes supporting communication methods used in educational process of students with mental disability. The fifth chapter is applied to study. It characterizes chosen school institution and special pedagogical attitude to students and application augmentative and alternative aids. At the end of chapter are summarized knowledges from the study. The main goal of the study is presentation of methods using for development of communication of mental disabilited students and characterization supporting communication methods which...

Nonvocal alert patients in the intensive care unit setting often struggle to communicate due to inaccessible or unavailable tools for augmentative and alternative communication. A novel communication tool, the Manually-Operated Communication System (MOCS), was developed for use in intensive care settings for patients unable to speak due to mechanical ventilation. It is a speech-generating device designed for patients whose limited manual dexterity precludes legible writing. In a single-arm device feasibility trial, 14 participants (11 with tracheostomies, 2 with endotracheal tubes, and 1 recently extubated) used MOCS. Participants, family members, and observing nurses were interviewed whenever possible. Interviews included a modified version of the System Usability Scale (SUS) as well as open-ended questions; a qualitative immersion/crystallization approach was used to evaluate these responses. Participants with a tracheostomy and their family members/care providers rated MOCS on the SUS questions as consistently “excellent” (average rating across all groups was 84 +/- 17; all subgroups also rated the device highly). Through a qualitative interview process, these stakeholders expressed support for the use of MOCS in the ICU. Based on these data, MOCS has the potential to improve communication for nonvocal patients with limited manual dexterity.

Prior studies have shown that individuals with disabilities, especially those with communication disabilities, are at higher risk for being exposed to domestic violence. The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare recommend the municipal social services to use Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) as a means to facilitate communication with such individuals. Further, it is recommended that the social services use a standardized instrument called FREDA-risk assessment to ask clients about domestic violence. However, little is known about the use of those instruments among LSS administrators who handle service and support for individuals with disabilities, who may also have communication disabilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of FREDA- risk assessment and AAC among LSS administrators, and to explore whether the use of AAC affects the use of FREDA-risk assessment. In order to do so, a digital survey was conducted, in which 366 respondents spread over 144 municipalities participated. The results show that both instruments are not use at their full potential and that the use of AAC could facilitate the use of FREDA- risk assessment. Implications for social work practice and further research are discussed.