Vocabulary to Support Socially-Valued Adult Roles

Abstract

Individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) have new expectations for life after high school. However, the vocabulary needed to support socially-valued adult roles may not be available in their communication devices. This study explored whether vocabulary needed to participate in six adult roles currently existed in three widely used symbol sets. Electronic mailing lists were used to generate words needed for each adult role. From these vocabulary sets, discrepancy analyses were conducted to determine whether symbols or symbol combinations in each of the symbol sets studied could represent those words. Results suggest that, overall, an average of 55% of the identified words was currently available in these symbol sets. The need for easily accessible vocabulary that reflects socially-valued adult roles is discussed.

The self-determined and partner-predicted topic preferences of adults with aphasia

“…In this way, if adults with aphasia indicate their preference towards certain topics such as work and sex, appropriate vocabulary related to these topics would need to be provided. Adults with aphasia would therefore have better access to words that support relevant and socially appropriate adult roles (Bryen, 2008).…”

“…Predetermined, commercially available topic lists (Kagan, Winckel, & Shumway, 1996), together with visual referents for these topics are available to facilitate the preselection of topics. The conversational topics within these lists are not always applicable to the individual circumstances and needs of the AAC user (Bryen, 2008). Therefore clinician-selected topics, and most frequently, topics selected by the familiar communication partners of the person with aphasia have been used in an attempt to obtain more individualised topics for use within AAC systems and techniques.…”

Social Validation of Vocabulary Selection: Ensuring Stakeholder Relevance

“…Vocabulary selection is especially critical for the development of age-appropriate and culturally relevant communication boards and speech-generating devices (Bryen, 2008 (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2005). However, literature has noted that vocabulary selection by communication partners as informants often was inadequate; for example, Shewan and Cameron (1984) suggested that one cannot always rely on using familiar partners as reliable and accurate informants.…”

“…Commercially available vocabularies can then provide the necessary vocabulary for adults (Kagan, Winckel, & Schumway 1996). However, research by Bryen (2008) reported that commercial vocabularies often lack needed vocabularies for dealing with a whole range of adult topics (e.g., college, intimate relations, employment, crime). Furthermore, these commercial vocabularies are not always applicable for the individual circumstances, needs and cultures of people who use AAC in South Africa where there are many indigenous groups and 11 official languages.…”

“…Many teams are aware that the vocabulary resource lies at the heart of most AAC systems (Graves, 2000). Unfortunately, one individual or one team rarely has enough knowledge and/or experience to select vocabulary for every specific context, activity, and ethnic or language group (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2005;Bryen, 2008).…”