Supported communication

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Supported communication (UK abbreviated) is the German name for the international specialist field Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) . Literally translated, the English term means "complementary and replacing communication ", which means all forms of communication that supplement (augmentative) or replace (alternative) the missing spoken language.

Supported communication is therefore the generic term for all educational or therapeutic measures to expand the communicative possibilities of people who have little or no spoken language . Examples are the introduction of picture or symbol cards or a communication board for communication, the provision of a speech output device or the addition of spoken language by signing key words. In addition, the term describes the process of communication using means of supported communication (e.g. in the phrase supports communicating people ).

The term should not be confused with supported communication . Here, physical and emotional support is provided, which should make it possible for people with impaired voluntary motor skills to point to a communication aid or to use a writing aid or a computer. Assisted communication is controversial because critics doubt that the assisted communications are authentic; H. originate from the supported person.

target group

Stephen von Tetzchner and Harald Martinsen differentiate between three target groups for which supported communication can be helpful.

  • People who understand spoken language well but have insufficient ability to express themselves (UK as an expressive aid)
  • Need people who support the spoken language acquisition and their spoken language skills are only understood when it through an additional aids have (UK as support for the spoken language)
  • People for whom spoken language is too complex as a communication medium and who therefore need a suitable alternative (UK as a substitute language)

These target groups include people with:

It becomes clear that assisted communication is aimed at a broad spectrum of people with very different forms of disability and wants to offer communication channels with a high degree of complexity, as well as looking for basic communication options and first common signs with severely disabled people.

Goals and basic principles

With supported communication, the focus is on the success of the communication process. People with inadequate or missing spoken language should be taught successful communication experiences as early as possible so that their communicative development is not impaired by constant failures. The body's own communication options as well as electronic or non- electronic communication aids are used to supplement and replace spoken language . However, assisted communication is not just about providing aids, but rather the concept provides for comprehensive special educational-therapeutic support for the communicative development of people with insufficient spoken language skills. The attitude of the communication partners and their skills in conducting discussions as well as other external conditions are just as important. z. B. institutional features.

In addition to establishing contact, supported communication always explicitly aims to establish a common understanding system in some form, commonly understood symbols . These signs can be somatic expressions, sounds, words, objects, pictures and symbols, touch, movements, gestures, smells, noises, sounds and the like. a. - it is crucial that these signs acquire a common meaning for the communication partners involved.

Time of intervention

Again and again there was and still is the fear that too early use of AAC could lead to the development or further development of spoken language skills being hindered. The oralistic approach said that alternatives to spoken language are only appropriate when years of efforts to develop spoken language skills are unsuccessful. Supported communication was therefore only seen as the last option, which was subordinate to traditional speech therapy measures.

In the meantime, however, the communicative approach has established itself in both academic discussions and practical work. Accordingly, the most important goal is to achieve the most undisturbed communicative development possible in a person without effective spoken language. And communicative development is based on successful communication, irrespective of whether spoken language, the body's own capabilities or communication aids are used. It is therefore important to let people without sufficient spoken language experience joyful and effective communication as early as possible, in the knowledge that supported communication can definitely represent a way to promote spoken language skills and thus gradually make themselves superfluous. At the same time, there will always be people for whom supported communication is the most important, perhaps even the only effective communication medium.

Elements of Assisted Communication

The aim is a multimodal communication system that consists of different forms of communication and thus the dependence on one form, e.g. B. the speech output device reduced.

Equally important, however, are the learning of communication strategies in dealing with the supporting forms of communication as well as the attitude and attitude of the communication partners and their skills in conducting discussions .

Body's own forms of communication

The body's own communication options include all forms that can be carried out with the help of one's own body. The body's most important means of communication is its own voice, and spoken language utterances remain a central means of understanding for many people who communicate with support. In addition to the voice, there are also numerous other options, the body's own communication options include:

  • Phonation
  • Speech remnants
  • Eye movements
  • facial expressions
  • Pointing movements
  • Body movements
  • Yes / No sign (individual or conventional)
  • Gestures
  • Finger alphabet
  • Individual systems (e.g. writing letters in the air)

The body's own forms of communication within the framework of supported communication are in many cases identical or similar to non-verbal communication between naturally speaking people. However, for people who do not speak there is a need to use this form of communication so systematically and sometimes in such an unusual way that it does not make sense to equate these two terms.

The use of signs is of particular importance in the body's own forms of communication.

Use of signs

Signs as a component of assisted communication have a long tradition that extends into the time when this subject was already being implemented in practice, but as a theoretical building did not yet exist in German-speaking countries. In numerous diaconal institutions where people with intellectual disabilities lived, different sign catalogs were used successfully as early as the 1970s.

When using signs with people who can hear well, but for various reasons do not develop any or insufficient spoken language skills, there are major differences to working with deaf people: Modern deaf education assumes that sign language and not spoken language represents the mother tongue of deaf people. The German Sign Language (DGS) is to be understood as a completely independent language system, which differs in numerous elements from spoken language. In this respect, the spoken language with its syntax and its grammatical peculiarities does not represent the framework on which DGS is oriented.

In the case of supported communication, on the other hand, spoken language is clearly the framework that is accompanied by signs. Not every single word is converted into signs (as is done in the LBG = spoken language-accompanying signs system), but only the central statements of the sentence, the key words, are converted into sign language. In this respect, it is also misleading when it is said in the area of ​​supported communication that the German Sign Language (DGS) is used. In these cases only the extensive vocabulary of the DGS is used, but not the actual peculiarities of this language.

In addition to using the vocabulary from the DGS, simplified signs are also used in German in supported communication (e.g. the catalog Look at my hands or the sign-supported communication  (GuK) according to Etta Wilken).

Non-electronic communication aids

When it comes to communication aids , a distinction must be made between non-electronic and electronic aids . In the area of ​​non-electronic help, a. used:

  • Communication boxes with concrete objects (e.g. shoe boxes containing an object that represents a specific activity)
  • Communication boards (e.g. laminated A4-size cardboard on which photos, symbols or letters / words are glued)
  • Communication books (e.g. ring binders or photo albums in which the vocabulary important for the user is presented thematically with photos, icons or words)
  • Communication aprons (aprons with symbols attached with Velcro)
  • Themed boards and communication posters (picture boards that are attached to the dining area, on the toilet wall, on the changing table)
  • individual picture or word cards (e.g. on a metal ring that can be attached to the belt)

Electronic communication aids

Electronic communication aids are devices that convert inputs (via the keyboard or other input devices) into spoken or written language.

A distinction is made between stationary and portable (or mobile) electronic communication aids. Stationary systems consist of a PC with communication software and, if necessary, with adapted input options (e.g. touch screen , foot mouse, head pointer, alternative keyboard ). In the case of portable systems, a distinction is made between devices that have been specially developed as speech output devices for people with disabilities, and between notebooks or handhelds converted as speech output devices.

Furthermore, a distinction is made between systems with spoken speech output and / or with written speech output, the written speech output then takes place either via a display or also via a print module. The spoken language is either spoken when setting up the device by a person who is competent in speaking using a built-in microphone (so-called natural speech output - digitized language) or it is generated synthetically in the device ("computer language"). Both variants have advantages and disadvantages, for example digitized speech sounds more natural, but requires a lot of storage space. In addition, utterances using digitized speech are limited to previously defined (and recorded) sounds, while new utterances are also possible using devices with synthetically generated speech. Devices with modern software often offer both options.

Electronic communication aids with voice output are also called voice output devices or - less often - speech devices. Colloquially, they are also referred to as voice computers . The term talker is also common .

Many speech output devices do not have a normal keyboard, but are controlled either with a touchscreen or via a user interface, which often consists of large buttons. The keys are called “fields” or “cells” and the entire user interface is called “level”. Many devices have several levels from which you can choose if necessary. If a device z. B. has 32 fields and four levels, you can store 128 statements on it. Newer devices allow an individual number of fields.

Another way of increasing the number of statements that can be called up is to use the coding: An utterance is not assigned a key, but a key combination. With this principle, 32 × 32 = 1024 utterances would then be retrievable on a device with 32 fields.

Many speech output devices do not work or do not work exclusively on the basis of written language . Instead, images and icons are used that the user selects to create an utterance. This is not only due to the fact that many users do not have any written language skills, but is also due to the fact that the communication speed is increased if every word does not have to be spelled.

There are a variety of controls for electronic communication aids, e.g. B. pressure and toggle switches, forehead rod, mouse, trackball , joystick , light sensor, proximity sensor, surface joystick, suction and blow switch, head mouse or eye control. With these elements, the fields are either controlled directly (so-called direct selection) or indirectly (various scanning methods).

In the last few years, decisive advances have been made, especially in the field of control methods. Today it is also possible for a person with very little head control and strong spastic movements to operate a complex voice computer by means of eye controls.

Development of Assisted Communication

In Germany

The first promising efforts in practice have been made since the early 1970s (e.g. Belvedere School in Cologne, Martinsschule in Ladenburg, and by Etta Wilken 1974. from Leibniz University in Hanover). Since 1981, various courses on the BLISS symbolic language have contributed to the further development of the UK.Today, Bliss is hardly used anymore, as modern computer programs offer collections of picture symbols that make the creation of communication boards much easier (e.g. the Boardmaker program). In addition, a large number of portable voice computers are now available, which can be operated using pictorial symbols, icons or characters.

In 1990 the German-speaking section of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) was founded. The first scientific investigations were carried out in Germany through the dissertations or habilitation theses by Wachsmuth (1986), Gangkofer (1993), Adam (1993), Braun (1994). The number of scientific (including Rothmayr 2001; Renner 2004; Lage 2006; Seiler-Kesselheim 2008; Boenisch 2009) and practice-oriented publications on the UK continues to increase. Since 1996 the magazine Supported Communication, first published in 1990 as a club magazine by ISAAC Germany, has been accessible to a broad readership through the Loeper publishing house. Aided communication is also increasingly being adopted as a necessary part of the training of prospective support teachers at universities. There is a chair for assisted communication at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg.

See also

literature

  • Heidemarie Adam: Communicate using signs and symbols. edition bentheim, Würzburg 1993, ISBN 3-925265-47-3 .
  • Adrienne Biermann: Supported communication in conflict. Edition Marhold, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89166-988-7 .
  • Allmuth Bober: Supported Communication. State of research on linguistic indicators of authorship. In: Henrike Bollmeyer, Kathrin Engel, Angela Hallbauer, Monika Hüning-Meier (eds.): UK included . von Loeper-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2011, ISBN 978-3-86059-147-5 , pp. 418-433.
  • Jens Boenisch: Children without spoken language. from Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe 2009, ISBN 978-3-86059-211-3 .
  • Ursula Braun: Supported communication for physically disabled people with severe dysarthria. Peter Lang Publishing House. Frankfurt a. M. 1994, ISBN 3-631-47697-3 .
  • Ursula Braun (Ed.): Supported Communication. self-determined life publishing house, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-910095-61-5 .
  • Bundesverband Evangelische Behindertenhilfe (Ed.): Look at my hands. Sign collection for communication with non-speaking people. Diakonie-Verlag, Reutlingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-938306-11-6 .
  • Manfred Gangkofer: Bliss and written language. Libelle, Bottighofen 1993, ISBN 3-909081-56-8 .
  • Stefan Geiger: Language-supporting signs to promote communication among non-speaking people with an intellectual disability. In: Zur Orientation 7 (1983), 17-24
  • Monika Hüning-Meier, Conny Pivit: Non-electronic communication aids. In: from Loeper Literaturverlag and isaac - Society for Supported Communication eV (Ed.): Handbook of Supported Communication. Karlsruhe 2003, ISBN 3-86059-130-4 , pp. 03.001.001ff
  • Annette Kitzinger, Ursi Kristen, Irene Leber: Now I'll tell you my way! First steps in assisted communication with children. Von-Loeper-Literaturverlag, Karlsruhe 2004, ISBN 3-86059-137-1 .
  • Ursi Kristen: Practice Supported Communication. An introduction. self-determined life, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-86059-137-1 .
  • Dorothea Lage: Supported communication and living environment. Julius Klinkhard, Bad Heilbrunn 2006, ISBN 3-7815-1441-2 .
  • Gregor Renner: Theory of Assisted Communication. edition Marhold, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89776-007-X .
  • Angelika Rothmayr: Pedagogy and Supported Communication. from Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe 2001, ISBN 3-86059-136-3 .
  • Andreas Seiler-Kesselheim: Advisory services in assisted communication. from Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe 2008, ISBN 978-3-86059-212-0 .
  • State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research Munich (Ed.): Supported Communication (UK) in Classes and Schools. Alfred Hintermaier Publishing House, Munich 2009.
  • by Loeper Literaturverlag and isaac - Society for Supported Communication eV (Hrsg.): Handbook of Supported Communication. Karlsruhe 2003, ISBN 3-86059-130-4 .
  • Stephen von Tetzchner, Harald Martinsen: Introduction to assisted communication. edition S, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8253-8266-4 .
  • Supported Communication 4-2011: Head and Eye Control . from Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe
  • Susanne Wachsmuth: Multi-dimensional approach to promoting communication skills of the mentally handicapped. Justus Liebig University Giessen 1986, ISBN 3-922346-15-4 .
  • Etta Wilken (Ed.): Assisted Communication. An introduction to theory and practice. Kohlhammer Verlag, 5th edition. Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-17-032974-4 .
  • State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research (Ed.): Supported Communication (UK) in Classes and Schools. Hintermaier Verlag, Munich 2009.

Movies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adrienne Biermann: Supported communication in conflict. Edition Marhold, Berlin 1999
  2. ↑ Allmuth Bober, Adrienne Biermann: Facilitated Communication (FC) - for research. In: Jens Boenisch, Christof Bünk (Hrsg.): Research and practice of supported communication. from Loeper-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2001, 203-223
  3. ↑ Stephen von Tetzchner, Harald Martinsen: Introduction to Supported Communication. edition S, Heidelberg 2000, p. 79 ff
  4. ↑ Ursula Braun: Supported communication for physically disabled people with severe dysarthria. Peter Lang Publishing House. Frankfurt a. M. 1994, p. 47f.
  5. ↑ Ursula Braun: Supported Communication - What is it actually? In: Ursula Braun (Ed.): Supported Communication. self-determined living, Düsseldorf 1994, p. 5.
  6. ↑ Ursula Braun, Stefan Orth: UK and first signs with severely disabled children. In: Jens Boenisch, Katrin Otto: Life in Dialog. from Loeper-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2005, 131
  7. ↑ Irene Leber: The first signs of assisted communication in children with severe disabilities. In: Stefanie Sachse, Cordula Birngruber, Silke Arendes (eds.): Learning and teaching in assisted communication. von Loeper-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2007, p. 163f
  8. ↑ Angelika Rothmayr: Pedagogy and Supported Communication. from Loeper-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2001, p. 29
  9. ↑ Stephen von Tetzchner, Harald Martinsen: Introduction to Supported Communication. edition S, Heidelberg 2000, pp. 80f.
  10. ↑ Conny Pivit: Individual communication systems. In: from Loeper Literaturverlag and isaac - Society for Supported Communication eV (Ed.): Handbook of Supported Communication. Karlsruhe 2003; S.01.006.001
  11. ↑ Ursi Kristen: Practice Supported Communication. An introduction. self-determined life, Düsseldorf 1994, p. 51ff.
  12. ↑ Ursula Braun, Ursi Kristen: Body's own forms of communication. In: from Loeper Literaturverlag and isaac - Society for Supported Communication eV (Ed.): Handbook of Supported Communication. Karlsruhe 2003, pp. 02.003.001-02.007.001.
  13. ↑ Ursula Braun, Ursi Kristen: Body's own forms of communication. In: from Loeper Literaturverlag and isaac - Society for Supported Communication eV (Ed.): Handbook of Supported Communication. Karlsruhe 2003, p. 02.006.001.
  14. ↑ Stefan Geiger: Language-supporting signs to promote communication in non-speaking people with an intellectual disability. In: Zur Orientation 7 (1983), 17-24
  15. ↑ Bundesverband Evangelische Behindertenhilfe (Ed.): Look at my hands. Sign collection for communication with non-speaking people. Diakonie-Verlag, Reutlingen 2007.
  16. ↑ Monika Hüning-Meier, Conny Pivit: Non-electronic communication aids. In: from Loeper Literaturverlag and isaac - Society for Supported Communication eV (Ed.): Handbook of Supported Communication. Karlsruhe 2003, pp. 03.001.001ff
  17. ↑ Ursula Braun: Not electronic communication aids. In: Ursula Braun (Ed.): Supported Communication. self-determined living, Düsseldorf 1994, p. 18
  18. ↑ Overview with photos: State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research Munich (Hrsg.): Supported Communication (UK) in class and school. Verlag Alfred Hintermaier, Munich 2009, pp. 186–193.
  19. ↑ after the generic name of the speech output devices of a large auxiliary company (based on the same principle according to which paper handkerchiefs are often called " Tempo ").
  20. ↑ Journal Assisted Communication 4-11: Head and Eye Control. Loeper publishing house. Karlsruhe 2011.
  21. ↑ Etta Wilken: The finger alphabet as a communication aid in a cerebral palsy and deaf boy . In: G. Heese, A. Reinartz (ed.): Current contributions to education for the physically handicapped . Marhold-Verlag, Berlin 1974, 55-58
  22. ↑ Hermann Frey: The Bliss Symbol Method. In: Das Band 4, 37-39
  23. ↑ Susanne Wachsmuth: Multi-dimensional approach to the promotion of communication skills of the mentally handicapped. Justus Liebig University Giessen 1986
  24. ^ Manfred Gangkofer: Bliss and written language. Libelle, Bottighofen 1993
  25. ↑ Heidemarie Adam: Communicate with signs and symbols. edition bentheim, Würzburg 1993
  26. ↑ Ursula Braun: Supported communication for physically disabled people with severe dysarthria. Peter Lang Publishing House. Frankfurt a. M. 1994
  27. ↑ Angelika Rothmayr: Pedagogy and Supported Communication. by Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe 2001
  28. ^ Gregor Renner: Theory of supported communication. edition Marhold, Berlin 2004
  29. ↑ Dorothea Lage: Supported communication and living environment. Julius Klinkhard, Bad Heilbrunn 2006
  30. ↑ Andreas Seiler-Kesselheim: Advice offers in assisted communication. from Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe 200
  31. ↑ Jens Boenisch: Children without spoken language. by Loeper Verlag, Karlsruhe 2009