Using Symbol based VOCAs

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Using Symbol based VOCAs

• Thursday 11th October 2007
• Vicky Lundie- Speech and Language therapist
• Julia Hampson Speech and language therapist
• Helen Whittle Speech and language therapist

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Contacting ACT

• Helpline 0121 472 0754
• Website www.wmrc.nhs.uk/act/
• Email format Firstname.Secondname_at_sbpct.nhs.uk
• Main phone number 0121 627 8235
• Address ACT, WMRC, 91 Oak Tree Lane, Selly Oak,
  Birmingham. B29 6JA

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Timetable

• 9.00 Registration and Coffee
• 9.30 Introduction
• 9.45 The Assessment process and factors to
  consider
• 10.45 Tea/coffee
• 11.00 Vocabulary packages
• 12.45 Lunch
• 1.15 Physical issues- Access, size, mounting
• 2.15 Tea/coffee
• 2.30 Making the Communication Environment
  Successful
• 3.00 Ideas, Resources and Questions
• 3.30 Close

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Introducing ACT

• Regional NHS Tertiary Assistive Technology
  Service all ages and conditions
• Mission statement
• To empower people with disabilities, using
  techniques and technologies which optimize
  potential for communication and control.
• Staff OT, SLT, Clinical Scientists, Workshop
  team, Administrators about 30 people.
• Other teams in UK are similar but each is unique

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The West Midlands AAC Care Pathway

• Brief history
• About the training packages
• The documentation and how it can be used.
• Sourcing the documentation

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The West Midlands AAC Care Pathway
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The West Midlands AAC Care Pathway
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Learning Outcomes

• Following the Course participant will be able to
  
• Identify assessment requirements for clients when
  considering a High Tech Device
• Consider the different High Tech options
  available
• Consider different access methods to High Tech
  devices
• Consider whether referral to ACT is appropriate

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Introductions

• Please introduce yourself and tell us why you are
  on this course

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Factors to consider

• Clients skills
• Purpose of communication
• Physical features needed in VOCA
• Organisation of vocabulary

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Clients skills

• Use the Care Pathway to assess
• Vision
• Hearing
• Motivation
• Cognitive levels
• Language levels
• Symbol knowledge
• Physical control

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Purpose of communication

• Social interaction
• Express wants and needs
• Develop language skills
• Curriculum access and recording

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Physical features of VOCA

• Size /weight
• Portable or mounted
• Size of screen
• Type of access
• Changeable overlays or dynamic screen
• Ease of programming
• Digital or synthetic voice
• Extra features

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Organisation of vocabulary

• Activity or situational vocabulary
• Semantic groups
• Starters and vocabulary
• Whole phrases/messages
• Build sentences

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Practical Session

• Feedback re delivering a message
• I go to Grandmas
• I I watch TV
• I play football at school
• I go shopping
• Please fill in feedback sheets

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Tea/Coffee break
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Vocabulary packages

• We cant be experts on all the packages
• Look at the assessment / carepathway and decide
  the main key feature required of the system
  before selecting vocab package
• Most important things
• level of support
• Opportunities
• Appropriate level of representation
• Appropriate choice of vocabulary

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What are the choices?......

• IDV
• ADV
• CALLtalk
• Chailey
• Communicate
• EDL
• ExpressTalk
• Gateway / InterACCT

• Stalk
• Language for Learning and Living (LLL)
• PragTalk
• Unity
• Picture Word Power

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IDV - A
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IDV - B
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IDV - C
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IDV - D
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Ingfield Dynamic Vocabulary

• Age ? Children with physical difficulties in
  conductive education. KS 1 and 2
• Symbols ? PCS, Rebus, Dynasyms. Symbols do not
  change to suit age of client
• Software / Hardware ? Dynavox / The Grid
  (Smartbox) / Clicker 4 (Crick) / Mind Express
  (Techcess)
• Progressive ? 4 progressive levels (A D) / can
  personalise
• A 4yrs, 15 pgs vocabulary on 24 loc grids can
  build simple 2 symbol sentences. Developing
  categorisation skills. Move between top page and
  topic page
• B - 7yrs, 25pgs of vocabulary on, 35 loc grids,
  3 more categories of vocabulary (than A), build
  longer sentences, switch from one pg to another
  within a sentence
• C 9yrs, 39 pages of vocab on 48 location grids,
  24 categories of vocabulary. Keyboard page
• D 11yrs, 75 pages of vocabulary on 63 location
  grids, comprehensive grammar pages alphabetically
  organised. Keyboards page.
• Teaching material ? Workbooks to accompany each
  level and lesson plans (curriculum based).

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Adult Dynamic Vocabulary
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ADV

• Age ? Adults (10 years) with extensive
  vocabularies
• Symbols ? Rebus, black and white / colour
• Software ? Dynavox / The Grid
• Layout ? 48 cells per page, 990 pages. Huge
  vocabulary base
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? Mixture of quick phrases
  and opportunity to create novel utterances.
  Consistent buttons on each page. Quick phrases.
• Teaching material ? No

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CALLtalk
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CALLtalk

• Age ? Children with good literacy potential in
  mainstream / adults also
• Symbols ? PCS
• Software ? Dynavox (3100 only) / The Grid
• Hardware ? Dynavox / Say It Sam / Grid 2 / Tellus
• Layout ? 35 cells per page, 217 pages. Good
  access as few per page. Cells around the edge
  (yellow) consistent on each page
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? For communication and
  classroom activities. Understand topic
  categorisation., beginning to put 2 words
  together. Some cells just the word (can
  symbolise)
• Teaching material ? Manual has teaching tips but
  no formal lesson plan. Aspiring to develop
  literacy skills
• Access Options ? Direct / keyguard / touch - best

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Chailey CS
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Chailey CS

• Age ? Children with physical difficulties,
  designed for auditory scanning for people with
  visual difficulties
• Symbols ? Rebus (b w and colour)
• Software ?Dynavox / Tellus
• Layout ? Rigid / consistent organisation, not
  flexible (24 cells per page 280 pages).
• 3 levels of vocabulary
• 1) Category Meals (of which there are 16)
• 2) Topic drinks
• 3) Key Words - Tea
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? Based on a 20 question type
  approach. Aims to ensure compatibility between
  high and low-tech system
• Teaching material ? There is a system to record
  vocabulary knowledge, highlight words user knows

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Communicate

• American based so rarely used
• Age ? Adults / teens who are assuming
  responsibility for their daily care
• Symbols ? PCS
• Software ? Dynavox
• Layout ? 63 cells per page, 350 pages huge!!
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? 16 community based
  situation pages, social vocabulary 27 daily
  routines. Contains lots of text (needs a degree
  of literacy good visual skills). Includes
  comments / requests page.
• Teaching material ? None apparent

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Expressions for Daily Living

• Age ? Teenagers with some learning difficulty.
• Symbols ? Dynasyms
• Software ? Dynavox (only available on 3100
  series 4.
• Layout ? 48 / 55 cells per page, 251 pages.
  (Need good direct access). Slow for scanning.
  Colour coded for navigation
• Progressive ? Yes 3 levels
• Word / phrase based ? Curriculum activity based
  social vocabulary
• Teaching material ? No

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ExpressTalk - young
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Express Talk - intermediate
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Express Talk - senior
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ExpressTalk

• Age ? All
• Symbols ? PCS, Rebus, Bliss
• Software ? Mind Express (grid)
• Hardware ?Tellus
• Layout ? Junior 8 cells per page, 17 pages
• Intermediate 32 cells per page, 34 pages. 12
  core non change on front e.g. subject and verb
• Senior 72 cells per page, 45 pages each with 3
  levels
• Progressive ? 3 levels of complexity
• Word / phrase based ? Able people requiring
  access to a large vocabulary. Categorisation ?
  sentence building right from the first level,
  develops in complexity.
• Teaching material ? No

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Dynavox series 4

• Age ? All
• Symbols ? PCS, Dynasyms
• Software / Hardware ? DV4, MT4
• Layout ? 8 scanning, 8 preschool, 12 adult, 15
  auditory scanning, 15 teen, 30 child, 40
  conversation Gateway 12, 20, 30, 40, 60, Pro
  (text based)
• Systemic approach
• Progressive ? Yes
• Word / phrase based ? Set out for sentence
  building from an early level. navigation
  between pages.
• Teaching material ? No

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Series V Adult 6 location
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Series V - Child 6 location
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Series V - child 20 location
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Series V - teen 20 location
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Series V - adult 20 location
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InterAACT - child
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InterAACT - adult
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Dynavox series V

• Age ? All
• Symbols ? PCS, Dynasyms
• Software ? Dynavox
• Hardware ?V and V Max
• Layout ?
• 5 users young child, child, teen, young adult,
  adult.
• Each user broken down into (a) functional
  emergent communicator (b) situational / context
  dependent communicator ( c) creative independent
  communicator
• Facilitator pages
• Progressive ? Yes but vocab / symbols change to
  become age appropriate (same basic layout).
• Word / phrase based ? Gateway (as before).
  InterAACT pages can create novel utterances but
  there are a set of consistent phrases on each
  page
• Teaching material ? Interactive tutorial for
  facilitator. No workbooks

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Stalk
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Stalk

• Age ? Young
• Symbols ?Rebus
• Layout ?Two levels. Tops 7 under each is 15 cell
  page but not all cells filled
• Software ? Grid 2 - Smartbox
• Progressive ? No. Move onto IDV A
• Word / phrase based ? key way of introducing
  concepts. One button represents a concept below
  each one phrases. Basic introduction to AAC.

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LLL - Pathfinder
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LLL - 8 loc
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LLL - 15 loc
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LLL 45 loc
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LLL 84 loc
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LLL

• Age ? From 3 years of age
• Symbols ? PCS, Minsyms
• Hardware ? Vanguard / Vantage / Eco / Pathfinder
• Layout ? 4, 8, 15, 45, 85, 132 layout available.
  Static and Dynamic. Direct access, competent
  user speed of gemneration very quick.
• Progressive ? Yes, early stages focus on teaching
  Minspeak
• Word / phrase based ? Mainly uses 2 icon
  sequences.
• Teaching materials ? Yes worksheets assessment
  exercise. 40 200 hours of training.

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Unity

• American based so rarely used
• Age ? From 3 years of age
• Symbols ? PCS, Minsyms
• Layout ? 132 layout available
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? Mainly uses 3 icon
  sequences
• Teaching material ? No

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PragTalk
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PragTalk

• Age ? Pre-schoolers
• Symbols ? PCS
• Software ?The Grid
• Layout ? 18 cells per page, 12 pages. 12 static
  buttons 6 buttons that go to 6 different pages
  with 18 cells on each.
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? Pragmatic rather than topic
  features. For chat / commenting. Conversation
  starters for social communication
• Teaching material ? No

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Picture Word Power
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Picture Word Power

• Age ? People with some literacy skills needing
  rapid communication
• Symbols ? PCS, Dynasyms
• Software ? Dynavox / Mind Express / The Grid
• Layout ? With keyboard 90 cells per page, 85
  pages. Without keyboards 71 cells per page,
  39 pages.
• Designed for efficient scanning
• Progressive ? No
• Word / phrase based ? Static core vocabulary
  organised by grammatical and semantic categories
  additional pop ups / pages for environment and
  topic based vocab
• Teaching material ? Not for teaching user but
  there is a tutorial to guide through the vocab
  organisation.

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Practical..

• Three case studies
• Identify which vocabulary packages may suit this
  person and reasons why
• Considerations
• AAC Carepathway help identify factors

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Access to vocabulary

• Direct access pointers etc
• Switch access
• Joystick/ rollerball
• Head pointers dwell facility

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AAC Care pathway

• Go through AAC Care pathway with a case study
• When to get ACT involved

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What device?

• Stand alone versus integrated devices
• Risk/benefit of each set-up
• Vocab packages
• Handout on devices and packages

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• Dynamic
• Cues
• Categorisation
• Organisation of vocabulary

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What do we need to say?

• Functions of language from group