Page 203 - Handbook of Electronic Assistive Technology

Chapter 7 • Alternative and Augmentative Communication 191

abilities. However, the presentation and ordering of the items may be impacted upon by
their access system – for example, a person who is using switches to access a text-based
system may benefit from having their selection set organised according to the frequency
the letters occurring in their language, rather than in traditional alphabetical order, to
minimise the number of switch presses required to generate a word.
Several different organisational approaches exist for the presentation of vocabulary on
a high-tech AAC device. Vocabulary can be arranged semantically, with elements arranged
according to a taxonomic categorisation, grammatically, with elements arranged by their
use or their order in speech, alphabetically, with elements arranged according to their
alphabetical order, or schematically, where elements are presented pragmatically related
to specific contexts or activities. The choice of vocabulary organisation will be guided by
careful assessment of an individual’s skills.
Semantic organisation of vocabulary involves the grouping of language concepts, rep-
resented by words or graphic symbols, into taxonomic categories, which typically conform
to an adult conceptualisation of how such concepts should be organised. It has been sug-
gested that there is limited evidence available about whether such arrangements reflect
how younger children organise language (Fallon et al., 2003) particularly abstract gram-
matical concepts.
Grammatical organisation of vocabulary is an approach where the vocabulary items
presented are arranged according to their function in spoken language. This would include
‘core vocabulary’ approaches, where high-frequency words, often pronouns and verbs,
are foregrounded with the goal of increasing flexibility and aiding the AAC user in develop-
ing language (Drager et al., 2010). This approach would likely include an element of colour
coding the different elements of language, as discussed further later.
Alphabetical organisation of vocabulary involves the arrangement of vocabulary items
in the alphabetical order of the user’s native language – acting in a similar way to a per-
sonalised dictionary for the user. Such an approach will require the user to have developed
some basic literacy skills and an understanding of the alphabet and alphabetical order
(Drager et al., 2010).
Schematic organisation may include grid-based systems, where vocabulary needed for
a specific context, such as a visit to a shop, or activity, such as vocabulary specific to a
game, are presented to the user in a standard grid format. The grids may include whole
utterances or individual words and sentence starters. This approach may also include the
use of visual scene displays – photos or other graphic representations of events or con-
texts that are meaningful to the individual (e.g., a child’s classroom), with vocabulary
concepts embedded within the scene (Light and McNaughton, 2013) using ‘hotspots’,
which produce messages when activated. Research suggests that this approach may sup-
port younger children who, it has been suggested, will often categorise vocabulary items
according to context-specific schema – for example, relating the words book or teacher to
the context of the classroom.
As the field of AAC has become more established, there now exist a number of commercially
and freely available ‘premade’ vocabularies. While it is helpful for clinicians and caregivers