Using an AAC device for communication

What is AAC? AAC is a set of tools and strategies that an individual uses to solve everyday communicative challenges. Communication can take many forms such as: speech, a shared glance, text, gestures, facial expressions, touch, sign language, symbols, pictures, speech-generating devices, etc. Everyone uses multiple forms of communication, based upon the context and our communication partner. Effective communication occurs when the intent and meaning of one individual is understood by another person. The form is less important than the successful understanding of the message.

As part of my Cerebral Palsy I was unable to speak until I was 4 years old. Until that time I used a picture board. Mine was different but this gives you the basic idea of a picture board. I think mine probably had things like mom, dad, sister, brother, toilet, hungry, thirsty and other words that a young child would need to communicate.


Once I learned to speak through the help of a speech pathologist I no longer needed my picture board. It wasn't until I moved away from home and no longer had my parents to speak for me if people didn't understand that I started asking what devices were available to help me. For me I use my AAC device in situations where my speech may not be understood (such as going to a new doctor or a social services agency) or in situations where I know I may not be heard because of noise levels as in situations where I need to speak louder my speech becomes more distorted.

My first device was a Dynavox. This is a great AAC device but I found for a person such as myself who has an unsteady gait, the portability of the device was not what I was looking for as I found it quite heavy. It did however have all of the options I wanted such as the alphabet board for spontaneous conversation and also allowed me to program messages for use in places I may need to use the device.



 My second device it was a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) with AAC software that had the same capabilities that the dynavox had but was alot more portable. I could place this, like a phone, in my bag or purse and take it out when needed.


 




 A few years after I got my PDA I purchased a Samsung tablet. Originally I purchased the tablet just like a lot others to replace my laptop to have something more portable to have when I went away on trips. I decided it was time to combine the two devices and started searching for AAC software to use on the tablet. I asked for some ideas from my AAC clinic and they recommended I use a software program called "Predictable', it had all of the features that I needed and has been my chosen AAC software for about the last year and a half.




 As I know a number of educators read my blog I thought I would relate this back to how having a speech impediments and/or having an AAC device can be effectively use in the classroom. For those students who have a difficult time getting their words out or who's speech may be unclear the best thing an educator can do is to give the student time to formulate their answers. If you know ahead of time what questions you will be asking, perhaps give the question to the student who may have difficulty speaking or using an AAC device time to form their answers.

Please feel free to ask me questions about any of my blogs.


For more information of people with communication disabilities please visit the 'Communication Disabilities Access Canada'.
http://www.cdacanada.com/

Giving a fifth grader the tools to suceed

A few years ago a friend of mine was teaching a Grade 5 class. One of her students had recently been diagnosed with a writing disability and was struggling to get a lot of his work completed. Even though he had the use of a computer, he would often sit in front of the computer, just staring at the screen not knowing where to begin. He often used a scribe to do his work but this often depended on the availability of the classroom teacher or the SERT.

She asked the Special Education Resource Teacher if the school had Dragon Naturally Speaking and they did. When asked if the student would  be trained on this program the SERT explained that it would be great but he did not know how to work the program. It was his lucky day as my friend knew that I had been using Dragon Naturally Speaking for years and I would be willing to train students on assistive software like Dragon http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm. She called me that night to set-up a time for me to come meet the student and start training.

A few days later I went to the school and met with the student and the SERT to begin training. This student was ideal candidate for using Dragon Training. We went through the training quite quickly and by the next session he was ready to test it out using some work he had to do for class. After just two sessions he was ready  begin using Dragon on his own.

The student continued to progress using Dragon and his marks were reflecting this progress. Now when he was given a writing assignment to do he was given the option of having a scribe or using Dragon. The more the year went on he chose Dragon more as he became more comfortable with the program.

I feel that this great example of a students' use of Dragon Naturally Speaking, speaks to how a student with a disability benefit from assistive technology like Dragon Naturally Speaking. For teachers, I would recommend asking around to see if there are people available to train students on the software if your SERT and/or school board do not offer training. If my friend did not have this student in her class and did not know that I was willing to train, this student could have been still waiting for training, thus continuing to struggle academically with writing assignments.

Logitech trackball and Kensington Trackball

Using a regular computer mouse has never been fun thing for me to do. My hand is gets uncomfortable from being in a unnatural position, I have difficulty pressing the buttons at the right time and most annoying is that I usually run out of desk space and end up dropping the mouse on the ground.

It was not until I got my first PC when I was starting college that I was introduce to a trackball. The first trackball system that I used was a Kensington Expert Mouse. As you can see the ball sits on a base and therea four buttons surrounding the ball. The base does not move allowing the user to focus on controlling cursor movements through moving just the ball, not the entire device. The four buttons on the base are for left clicks and right clicks but in some models the buttons can open different programs on the system.

The Logitech Trackman mouse is also a trackball system that I have used with a great deal of success.The design is more narrow so that the user can place their hand around the base or as I do just use the ball to move the cursors. Again the base does not move, allowing the user to just move the ball or click the buttons without the worry of running out of desk room as with a regular mouse.

For me, as an individual with Athetoid and Spastic Cerebral Palsy, these two trackball systems have been the answer to a lot of difficulties I had using a regular computer mouse. I could know cut and paste text without the worry of losing the text half way to its destination because my hand slipped off the mouse or because I was not able to drag and hold the buttons at the same time. Using the trackball system also allowed me to be on the computer for longer periods of time as my hand would not be as cramped up as it was with a regular mouse.

Many people use trackball systems for different reasons, not just physical disabilities. I have seen people who have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as it alleviates the pain on their wrists. Also those who have or are experiencing fine motor difficulties due to accidents or the onset of  disability. 

Technology in Post-Secondary

Technology in Post-Secondary

I was first introduced to the Dragon System when I was transitioning from secondary to post-secondary school.  At the time the only system I could use was the Discrete Speech which means the user says ‘one – word – at – a - time’ opposed to continuous speech where the use speaks in a natural rhythm. The discrete speech recognition was good but it was very time consuming.  To read more about continuous vs discrete speech recognition click on this link http://www.synapse-ada.com/naturallyspeaking/define.html  You must remember that this was the mid 1990’s so continuous speech recognition was not what it is today.

I used Dragon Discrete speech until I was in University and when the time came for me to get a new system things changed. I have been fortunate to have all my computer related needs met through the Technology Access Clinic at Chedoke in Hamilton and had the same Occupational Therapist for years. When I went to the clinic for my assessment I was informed that my O.T. was no longer with them and I now had someone new. This O.T. was great, not that the others we not good but this one was not afraid to try new things with me. Making sure that I had all my technology needs met.

As we started taking about my new system, at the time, he mentioned to me that Dragon had a new Pro edition that he wanted me to try.  If I remember correctly I think I laughed out loud and said something like ‘not with my speech’. My speech pathologist was there with me and talked me into trying it out which I reluctantly did, not expecting it to work. To my surprise it worked better than I thought. It actually understood the majority of words I was saying. It did take a long time in the beginning to train Dragon to my speech patterns but it was definitely worth it. I have used Dragon Naturally Speaking for about 15 years and have found it fantastic.  

When I use the computer I use a combination of keyboarding and speech recognition. When my fingers get cramped up or sore I switch to Dragon and when I get tired from speaking I switch back to keyboarding.