About the project
Children who use communication aids follow a path of language development that is very different from the typical path of speaking children, a path that reflects both the children’s failure to acquire spoken language and their ability to learn an aided communication mode. This process will provide insight also into the nature of the underlying processes of language development in general. There are however no detailed descriptions of the development of children who use communication aids from a language perspective.
Objectives
The lack of crucial knowledge within the field of aided communication is the motivation for the present project. It is a joint international effort, including 16 countries. The goal is to obtain a large corpora of utterances produced with communication aids by children aged 5–15 years, comprising a large range of topics and produced in a variety of situations for different purposes, as well as systematic knowledge about how the children interpret utterances produced by others in their own communication form. By providing this information, the present study will be a much needed reference study for research on aided communication development.
The project will give information about the typical course and variation of developmental aided communication histories of the children developing aided language (age at first communication aid, type of graphic system and aid, etcetera), the size, content and structure of the vocabularies, and how do the vocabularies compare to the growth in expressive vocabularies in normally speaking children, the length of the graphic utterances produced by the children at different age levels, and to what extent the structure of aided utterances follow the spoken language(s) surrounding the child, or are similar across language with different word order and grammar (e.g., English, Finnish and Spanish).
Publications
Von Tetzchner, S. and BAC project partners (2010). The system and aid histories of children developing aided communication. Paper presented at 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Barcelona, Spain, July 26-29 2010.
Basil, C. and Soro-Camats, E. (1996). Supporting graphic language acquisition by a girl with multiple impairments. In S. von Tetzchner and M.H. Jensen (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives (pp. 270–291). London: Whurr/Wiley.
Brekke, K.M. and von Tetzchner, S. (2003). Co-construction in graphic language development. In S. von Tetzchner and N. Grove (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: Developmental issues (pp. 176–210). London: Whurr/Wiley.
Jennische, M. and Sedin, G. (2006). School level at 10 years of age in children who required neonatal intensive care in 1980–1989. Acta Paediatrica, 95, 1586–1593.
Larsson, M., Dahlgren Sandberg, A. and Smith, M.M. (2009). Early reading and spelling ability in children with severe speech and physical impairments. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 30, 77–95.
Launonen, K. (2003). Manual signing as a tool for communicative interaction and language: The development of children with Down syndrome and their parents. In S. von Tetzchner and N. Grove (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: Developmental issues (pp. 83–122). London: Whurr/Wiley.
Manzini, E.J. and Deliberato, D. (2004). Recursos para comunicação alternativa. Brasilia: Secretaria Educação Especial.
Mendes, E. and Rato, J. (1996). From system to communication: Staff training for attitude change. In S. von Tetzchner and M.H. Jensen (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives (pp. 342–354). London: Whurr/Wiley.
Nunes, L.R. (Eds.) (2003). Favorecendo o desenvolvimento da comunicação em criancas e jovens com necessidades educacionais especiais. Rio de Janeiro: Dunya.
Oxley J.D. and Norris, J.A. (2000). Children's use of memory strategies: Relevance to voice output communication aid. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 16, 79–94.
Sandberg, A.D. (2006). Development of reading and spelling abilities in children with severe speech impairments and cerebral palsy at 6, 9 and 12 years of age in relation to cognitive development: A longitudinal study. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 48, 629–634.
Smith, M.M. (2003). Environmental influences on aided language development: The role of parental adaptation. In S. von Tetzchner and N. Grove (red.), Augmentative and alternative communication: Developmental issues (pp. 155–175). London: Whurr/Wiley.
Smith, M.M. (2003). Literacy and augmentative and alternative communication. London: Academic press.
Soto, G., Harman, E. and Wilkins, D. P. (2006). Exploring the elements of narrative that emerge in the interactions between an 8-year-old child who uses an AAC device and her teacher. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 22, 231–241.
Sutton, A., Soto, G. and Blockberger, S. (2002). Grammatical issues in graphic symbol communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 18, 192–204.
Tavares, L. and Peixoto, A. (2003). The development of independent manual and graphic conversation skills through joint activities in adolescence. In S. von Tetzchner og N. Grove (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: Developmental issues (pp. 272–286). London: Whurr/Wiley.
Van Balkom, H. and Donker Gimbrère, M.W. (1996). A psycholinguistic approach to graphic language use. In S. von Tetzchner and M. H. Jensen (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives (pp. 153–170). London, UK: Whurr/Wiley.
Von Tetzchner, S. (1997). The use of graphic language intervention among young children in Norway. European Journal of Disorders of Communication, 32, 29–46.
von Tetzchner, S. and Grove, N. (Eds.) (2003). Augmentative and alternative communication: Developmental issues. London: Whurr/Wiley.
Von Tetzchner, S. and M.H. Jensen (Eds.) (1996). Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives. London: Whurr/Wiley.
Von Tetzchner, S. and Martinsen, H. (2000). Introduction to augmentative and alternative communication, Second edition. London: Whurr/Wiley.