Designing AAC Systems that Include Context Support for Adult with Severe Acquired Cognitive/Linguistic Limitations. David Beukelman (University of Nebraska)

Challenge:

Typically people with acquired cognitive/linguistic limitations such as aphasia (language impairment) or traumatic brain injury (TBI) (linguistic/cognitive impairment) experience difficulty using traditional AAC technology. This is not only because of the severity of their cognitive/linguistic impairments, but also the linguistic, cognitive, and new learning requirements of AAC technologies.

These individuals present unique AAC challenges because they want to participate, tell stories and express their thoughts, feelings and opinions. Further, they typically transition into new social contexts from home, to rehabilitation, to assisted living or the home of a family member, or to a care facility—and must learn to communicate with new care-givers and residents.

Goals:

•To determine the impact of Visual Scene Display (VSD) strategies on the operational, social and linguistic competence of AAC users with severe TBI and aphasia;

• To develop design specifications for these populations to incorporate into new AAC prototypes; and

• To evaluate the effects of these design features to determine whether they enhance the communication performance of individuals with severe TBI and severe aphasia.

Activities:

This research project will be divided into three separate phases.

Phase 1. We will conduct a series of investigations to determine the impact of personally and contextually relevant contexts on the language and communication performance of individuals with severe, chronic aphasia or with TBI. Participants will be videotaped under a variety of conditions. In each condition participants will be responding to specific requests and answering questions.

Phase 2. We will identify design features and instructional strategies that support the use of AAC technologies based on Phase 1 findings. Phase 2 participants will include selected participants from Phase 1 with cognitive/linguistic limitations, their primary AAC facilitators, AAC specialists who provide AAC intervention services, representatives from our corporate partner on the project, and staff from the project research team. These individuals will propose additional design features (based on personal experience and research collected in Phase 1) that can enhance AAC performance of adults with severe aphasia and TBI.

Phase 3. Using a series of single case design studies, participants from Phase I will evaluate a simulation of desirable features in an AAC interface and in prototype applications developed by our corporate partner. These studies will compare individual communication performance across baseline and experimental conditions.