Persons who cannot rely on natural speech to fulfil their communication need to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to enable them to participate in life activities. For persons who are nonliterate, the vocabulary for the AAC systems must be preselected. A core vocabulary approach proposes that vocabulary used with a high frequency in spoken language samples be included in AAC systems, in order to ensure that communication can take place across a variety of contexts, and to enable the generation of novel utterances. Various studies have recorded the speech of persons without disabilities in order to determine core vocabulary lists in a number of languages. In South Africa, 22.7% of the population speak Zulu as a home language. There is to date no published Zulu core vocabulary list. This quantitative observational study therefore aimed to determine a core vocabulary for Zulu-speaking preschoolers. Six children aged between 5;1 (years;months) and 5;9 from three different rural preschools participated in the study. The spontaneous speech of these participants was captured during typical preschool activities using small, body-worn digital voice recorders. A total of 9000 orthographic words were captured and transcribed. Due to the linguistic structure of Zulu, the sample was analysed using a formative tagging system, in order to capture the smallest meaningful parts of the language. By applying inclusion criteria of frequency counts of ≥0.5‰ and use by at least two participants (commonality score), a core vocabulary of 221 formatives was determined, which accounted for 88.9% of the total composite sample. The formatives in this core vocabulary are further described and, where possible, compared to the core vocabulary of previous studies. Implications for the design of Zulu AAC systems are discussed. / IsiZulu: Abantu abangakwazi ukukhuluma ngendlela ejwayelekile baye badinge ukusebenzisa iAugmentative and Alternative Communication (i-AAC) ukuze nabo bezophila benze njengabantu bonke. Kulabo abangakwazi ukufunda nokubhala, kumele bakhethelwe amagama azofakwa ezinsizeni zabo (assistive devices) zokukhuluma. Isu lamagama asetshenziswa njalo njalo liphakamisa ukuthi kumele kufakwe wona ezinsizeni zokukhuluma ikhona inkulumo izophumelela nomaphi futhi ukuze oyisebenzisayo ezokwazi ukuzikhulumela azakhele nemisho emisha. Ucwaningo olahlukahlukene seluye lwaqopha izinkulumo zabantu abazikhulumelayo ukuze kutholakale izinhlu zamagama asetshenziswa njalo njalo ezilimini ezahlukeneyo. ENingizimu Afrika, ngama-22.7% ezakhamuzi akhuluma isiZulu njengolimi lwebele. Kuze kube yinamhlanje alukho uhla lwamagama esiZulu asetshenziswa njalo njalo oseluke lwashicilelwa. Ngakho-ke lolu cwaningo lokubheka ngezibalo luhlose ukuthola uhlelo lwamagama asetshenziswa njalo njalo yizingane ezikuzinkulisa ezikhuluma isiZulu. Yizingane eziyisi-6 ezangena kulolucwaningo ezazineminyaka yobudala engaphakathi kwe-5;1 (iminyaka;izinyanga) ukuya eminyakeni yobudala emi-5;9. Ezazisuka ezizinkuliseni zasemakhaya ezintathu ezahlukene. Zazifakwe izikhwanyana ezaziphethe iziqophamazwi, zaqoshwa zizikhulumela zingagqutshwa muntu, zibe zenza zonke izinto ezijwayele ukuzenza umangabe zazikunkulisa. Abhalwa phansi amagama ayekhulunywa izingane aze afika ku-9000. Ngenxa yohlelo lolimi lwesiZulu, kwaphoqa ukuthi kusetshenziswe indlela yokubala amagama eyayizowahlaziya ngokwezakhi zawo. Isakhi ngasinye ukuze sibalwe njengegama elisetshenziswa njalo njalo kwakumele sivele ngokuphindapinda ngaphezu kuka-0.5‰ (≥0.5‰), siphinde futhi sisetshenziswe izingane okungenani ezimbili. Ngalendlela kwatholakala izakhi ezingu-221 athathwa njengamagama asetshenziswa njalo njalo. Lezozakhi futhi zatholakala ukuthi zibambe inxenye engu-88.9% yayo yonke inkulumo yezingane eyayiqoshiwe. Izakhi ezikuloluhlelo ziyaqhubeka zichazwe, ziqhathaniswe futhi lapho okunokuqhathaniswa khona nohla lwezingcwaningo ezedlule. Umqondo ovezwa izakhi nawo uyahlaziywa mayelana nokusungulwa kwezinsizi zokukhuluma ezisosebenzisa isiZulu. / Afrikaans: Persone wat nie op natuurlike spraak kan staatmaak om hulle kommunikasiebehoeftes te vervul nie, moet gebruik maak van aanvullende en alternatiewe kommunikasie (AAK) om hulle in staat te stel om aan lewensaktiwiteite deel te neem. Vir persone wat nie geletterd is nie, moet die woordeskat vir die AAK-sisteem vooraf gekies word. ‘n Kernwoordeskat-benadering stel voor dat woordeskat, wat met hoë frekwensie in gesproke taal gebruik word in AAK-sisteme ingesluit word, om te verseker dat kommunikasie oor ‘n verskeidenheid kontekste kan plaasvind, en om nuwe uitinge te genereer. Verskeie studies het die spraak van persone sonder gestremdheid opgeneem om kernwoordeskatlyste in verkeie tale te bepaal. In Suid-Afrika besig 22.7% van die bevolking Zulu as huistaal. Daar is tot op hede geen gepubliseerde Zulu kernwoordeskatlys nie. Hierdie kwantitatiewe waarnemingstudie het dus gepoog om ‘n kernwoordeskat vir Zulu-sprekende voorskoolse kinders te bepaal. Ses kinders tussen die ouderdomme van 5;1 (jare;maande) en 5;9 van drie verskillende landelike voorskole het aan die studie deelgeneem. Die spontane spraak van die deelnemers is gedurende tipiese voorskoolse aktiwiteite opgeneem, deur gebruik te maak van klein, digitale bandopnemers wat op die liggaam gedra word. ‘n Totaal van 9000 ortografiese woorde is opgeneem en getranskribeer. Weens die linguistiese struktuur van Zulu is die steekproef deur ‘n formatiewe koderingsisteem geanaliseer, om die kleinste betekenisvolle dele van die taal vas te lê. Deur insluitingskriteria van frekwensietellings van ≥0.5‰ en gebruik deur ten minste twee deelnemers (algemeenheidstelling) aan te wend, is ‘n kernwoordeskat van 221 formatiewe vasgestel, wat 88.9% van die totale saamgestelde steekproef gedek het. Die formatiewe in hierdie kernwoordeskat word verder beskryf, en, waar moontlik, vergelyk met die kernwoordeskat van vorige studies. Implikasies vir die ontwerp van Zulu AAK sisteme word bespreek. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Oppenheimer Memorial Trust (OMT) / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / MA / Unrestricted

Introduction: People who have disabilities are often deprived of opportunities to be involved in daily life situations. While research attempts to explore the participation patterns of individuals with disabilities, there is a paucity of studies that have obtained the personal opinions of participation from children with intellectual disabilities, and none that have obtained personal opinions (self-reports) from children living in low- to middle-income (LAMI) countries. Reasons for this are thought to be the lack of measures and methods available for obtaining self-reports from children with intellectual disabilities. The Picture my Participation (PMP) instrument has been developed for use in LAMI countries and when used with the Talking MatsTM framework, ensures that the views of children with intellectual disabilities can be obtained. This study aimed to assess the test-retest reliability of the PMP instrument. Methods: Sixteen children aged 12 to 17 years with intellectual disabilities and their primary caregivers took part in this study. Each participant pair was required to complete the Picture My Participation survey twice in a space of two weeks. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Spearman’s rank order were used to measure internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Results and conclusions: While the questionnaire yielded high alpha values, indicating high internal consistency, the values for test-retest reliability were incomparable due to a small sample size and limited data. Further study is required with a larger and more diverse data sample. / Mini Dissertation (MAAC)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / This research forms part of an international project jointly funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF)/ STINT. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF/ STINT. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / MAAC / Unrestricted

No description available.

This dissertation explores the social context of children with severe motor and communication impairments who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), examining how they participate socially, and how they interact in a goal-oriented play activity. Chapter One provides the context by reviewing literature concerning the children who use AAC: describing their presentation, outlining the role of environmental influences, and reviewing what is known about their social context, participation and communicative interactions. This chapter reviews the issues faced by children who use AAC and outlines the thesis purpose and objectives. Chapter Two presents a qualitative study that explores the children’s social context, participation and social relationships from both children’s and parents’ perspectives. This study provides insight into children’s communicative abilities but highlights their limited social context and opportunities and supports for communicative interaction and social participation. Chapter Three presents a study that explores the communicative interaction within goal-oriented play activity. This study found that, if you give children who use AAC a ‘voice’, they experience communicative success. Group differences were evident, however. Compared to their peers, children using AAC were less specific, made more and different errors and received more help from partners. This study provides evidence of how contextual elements within activity settings could be altered so children could actively participate. Chapter Four presents a conceptual framework for understanding social context. This chapter integrates person-focused and environment-focused perspectives and leads to development of a framework that depicts the transactional influences of children and social environments. Recommendations for future studies are presented. Finally, Chapter Five discusses the implications of this dissertation, placing the insights gained from the empirical studies in the context of the proposed framework. Suggestions for further research and interventions are made that may improve health and developmental outcomes in children with severe motor and communication impairments. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Patients who suffer from traumatic brain injury often face communication deficits during their hospital stay. This thesis intended to examine approaches the nurse can use to facilitate communication in collaboration with the speech-language pathologist. A review of literature was conducted to examine current research on the most effective devices used to facilitate communication in this patient population. Research revealed that low-technology devices were the most effective means of communicating in the hospital setting. Barriers to effective communication were identified as lack of time, education and access to the devices. Recommendations for future research include developing a documentation component that emphasizes nursing assessment and intervention through collaboration with the SLP. Additional recommendations for research include the examination of impact of AAC use on patient satisfaction and outcomes. Communication using AAC is necessary in order to improve patient outcomes for traumatic brain injured individuals. This can be achieved through increased collaboration with the SLP, and increased nursing knowledge of the available devices and their implementation.

The ability to communicate is essential for children with developing language systems, and ultimately to being successful academically and eventually vocationally. In a world where communication is vital, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at a disadvantage and require additional options to express themselves; augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies have presented promising options for helping these children communicate. One technology option that has proven to be of particular interest to families of children with ASD involves the use AAC iPad apps. Research has been conducted in AAC, ASD, and music, but there is limited research to date, which integrates these three areas. This investigation was designed to address the lack of evidence-based AAC app interventions specifically designed to meet the communication needs of children with ASD. This pilot study will serve to further the evidence available to date indicating that SpeakAll! can be effectively implementing in 1:1 interventions using food reinforcers. This intervention adapts the SpeakAll! intervention protocol in a classroom setting with natural music activities to aid in functional communication.

Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka tandhygienisters användning av alternativ kompletterande kommunikation i form av bildstöd i möte med barnpatienter. Metod och material: En digital enkät bestående av 15 frågor skickades ut till samtliga (102 stycken) verksamma tandhygienister i Region Jönköpings län. Antal deltagare var totalt 57 stycken, 54 kvinnor och 3 män. Resultatet redovisades i absoluta – och relativa frekvenser, samt medelvärde. p-värde ≤ 0,05 ansågs statistiskt signifikant. Chi2test användes för jämförelse mellan grupper. Resultat: Intresse för användning av bildstöd fanns bland tandhygienisterna. Totalt var det 32 % som använde bildstöd. Inom specialisttandvård använde samtliga tandhygienister bildstöd och bland tandhygienisterna inom allmäntandvård användes bildstöd av 23,5%.. Resultatet visade även att 55,6% av tandhygienisterna använde bildstöd på alla barn inte bara enstaka grupper. Det fanns inget statistisk signifikant samband mellan användning av bildstöd och längden på tandhygienistutbildningen, men tandhygienister med en treårig utbildning använde sig av bildstöd i större utsträckning än tandhygienister med kortare utbildning. Slutsats: Bildstöd har visat sig vara ett bra hjälpmedel vid möte med barnpatienter inom tandvården. Trots detta använder inte alla tandhygienister sig av bildstöd pga. bland annat tidsbrist. Därför behövs mer kunskap om bildstöd samt om deras användning och fördelar inom tandvården. / Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of pictorial support among dental hygienists when meeting children in a dental environment. Method and material: A digital questionnaire with 15 questions was send out to all (102) actively working dental hygienists in the county of Jönköping. There were a total of 57 participants, 54 women and 3 men who answered the questionnaire. Results were presented with absolute and relative frequencies, mean value and Chi-square test. Results: There was an interest in using pictorial support among dental hygienists. All dental hygienists in special dental care used pictorial support. Among dental hygienists in public dental care 23.5% used pictorial support. Results showed that the majority of dental hygienists preferred using pictorial support on all children. There was no statistically significant difference between using pictorial support and the length of dental hygienist education, but participants who finished a three-year education used pictorial support more often. Conclusion: Pictorial support has found to be a useful tool in dental care, still there are dental hygienists that don’t use it. More knowledge and research are needed about pictorial support so the effect of augmentative and alternative communication can be evaluated.

Background: Participation in every life situation is a basic child’s right. Within health care, participation is achieved by effective patient-provider communication. Increased participation is shown to be beneficial for the well-being of the child. To achieve this, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) could be implemented during the care.  Aim: To explore the use of communication aids with children in health care settings and to see what the outcomes are for a child’s functioning based on the ICF-CY.  Method: A systematic literature review was conducted. The databases MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL and Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source were searched and nine articles were included for review. Results: It was found that both typically developing children and children with a variety of disabilities have been studied, as well as a wide age range. Low-tech aids have been practised most often, particularly visual picture schedules. Five studies measured ‘Activity and participation’ outcomes and the results showed improvement of patient-provider communication and enhanced completion of a medical procedure. Six studies measured outcomes that could be identified as ‘Body functions’ and results showed a decrease in anxiety, stress or pain at some point of the medical procedure.  Conclusion: This systematic literature review shows that AAC is still an emerging concept within health care with children, but the first results suggest that it has benefits for different child populations and for different aspects of a child’s functioning. However, it is not clear what the outcomes are for participation in particular. The limited amount of studies on this topic could be due to several barriers to achieve participation and use of AAC. Future research should focus more on using specific measures for participation. Also, researchers need to explore ways to overcome the barriers to implement AAC. Finally, new technologies such as tablet devices could be studied. / Participatie in elke levenssituatie is een basisrecht van elk kind. In de gezondheidszorg betekent dit een optimale communicatie tussen de patiënt en de hulpverlener. Verhoogde participatie blijkt gunstig te zijn voor het welzijn van het kind. Augmentatieve en alternatieve communicatie (AAC) zou hiervoor gebruikt kunnen worden binnen de gezondheidszorg. Het doel van deze studie is om het gebruik van communicatiehulpmiddelen met kinderen binnen de gezondheidszorg te verkennen en om na te gaan wat de resultaten hiervan zijn voor het functioneren van het kind gebaseerd op de ICF-CY. Er werd een systematische literatuurstudie uitgevoerd. Vier databanken werden doorzocht en in totaal werden negen artikels inbegrepen.  De resultaten toonden aan dat zowel typisch ontwikkelende kinderen als kinderen met een verscheidenheid aan beperkingen binnen een groot leeftijdsbereik reeds onderzocht zijn. Lowtech communicatiehulpmiddelen werden het vaakst gebruikt in de studies, waarvan het vaakst visuele schema’s. Vijf studies meten resultaten die behoren tot ‘Activiteiten en Participatie’ en toonden een verbeterde patiënt-hulpverlener communicatie en een betere bekwaamheid tot het beëindigen van een medische procedure. Zes studies meten resultaten die behoren tot ‘Lichaamsfuncties’ en toonden aan dat de angst, stress of pijn verlaagden bij het gebruik van een communicatiehulpmiddel. Deze systematische literatuurstudie toont aan dat AAC nog steeds een groeiend concept is binnen de gezondheidszorg voor kinderen. De eerste resultaten tonen echter dat AAC voordelen heeft voor verscheidene populaties van kinderen alsook voor verscheidene aspecten van het functioneren van een kind. Desalniettemin is het onduidelijk wat de resultaten zijn voor de participatie van het kind. Het beperkt aantal studies kan verklaard worden door het bestaan van allerhande barrières om participatie te bereiken en/of om AAC te gebruiken binnen de gezondheidszorg. Toekomstig onderzoek zou meer moeten focussen op de effecten voor participatie. Ook dient er onderzocht te worden hoe de meervoudige barrières overwonnen kunnen worden en hoe nieuwe technologieën zoals tablet computers mogelijks ingezet kunnen worden als communicatiehulpmiddel.

By combining context awareness and analytical based relevance computing software, the proposed Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) framework aims provide a foundation to create communication systems to dramatically increase the words available to AAC users. The framework will allow the lexicon available to the user to be dynamically updated by varying sources and to promote words based on contextual relevance. This level of customization enables the development of highly customizable AAC devices that evolve with use to become more personal while also broadening the expressiveness of the user. In order to maximize the efficient creation of conversation for AAC users, the framework provides a lexicon with the ability to obtain words from multiple sources which are then organized according to relevance in a situational context.

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between parental responsivity and language outcomes after a 24-session language intervention in a sample of 62 toddlers with significant developmental delays and fewer than 10 spoken words. The data for this secondary analysis were taken from a longitudinal study that evaluated language outcomes after augmented or spoken language intervention (Romski et al., 2010). Instances of parental responsivity increased from pre-intervention to post-intervention and directive behaviors decreased slightly across all intervention groups. The results suggest a relationship between parental responsivity and expressive language outcomes in children with developmental delay who use augmentative and alternative communication. These findings support the role of parents as social partners in language interventions.