Chapter 3- Symbols and Rate Enhancement Flashcards
Symbol
Something that stands for or represents something else, the referent
Referent
That which a symbols represents
Symbols can be described in terms of characteristics, including
1/ realism 2/ iconicity 3/ ambiguiyt 4/ complexity 5/ figure-ground differential 6/ perceptual distinctness 7/ acceptability 8/ efficiency 9/ colour 10/ size
Iconicity
Any association that an individual forms between a symbol and its referent
Continuum from transparent to opaque
Transparent
Symbols in which the shape, motion, or function of the referent is depicted to such an extent that meaning of the symbol can be readily guessed in the absence of the referent
Opaque
Symbols in which no symbol-referent relationship is perceived even when the meaning of the symbol is known
Translucent
Symbols in which the meaning of the referent may or may not be obvious, but a relationship can be perceived between the symbol and the referent once the meaning is provided (e.g. flat hand gesture for “stop”)
Aided symbols
Require some type of external assistance such as a device for production. e.g. real objects, black-and-white line drawings
Unaided symbols
Require no external device for production. e.g. facial expressions, manual signs, natural speech and vocalizations
Combined symbol sets
Incorporation of both aided and unaided elements.
Symbol understanding - development
Meaning of symbol mediated by various factors intrinsic to viewer
- motivation
- neurological status
- developmental age
- sensory abilities
- cognitive skills
- communication/language abilities
- world experience
culture, time, experience
_______ plays a critical role in symbol learning process
Spoken language comprehension
How developmental age affects symbol understanding
Degree of iconicity does not facilitate meaning in 18-month olds, but does in 26-month-olds
“Pictorial competence” – the ability to perceive, interpret, understand, and use pictures communicatively, develops gradually over the first few years of life
Until end of second year, TD children respond to pictures as they would objects, by trying to grasp them
It is not until around age 3 that children begin to understand
1/ pictures are two-dimensional objects in their own right (dual representation)
2/ pictures can stand for objects or concepts (they are symbols)
3/ referents can be depicted symbolically in multiple ways (colour photograph, b/w line drawing)
The ability to comprehend and use a variety of symbol types continues to develop until..
at around age 5, children are able to consider attributes of the symbol producer as well (e.g. matching crudely drawn and sophisticated symbols with pictures of children and adults, respectively)
Pictorial competence does not emerge…
uniformly for all symbols.
happy before sad, angry, scared/afraid
nouns before verbs, descriptors, wh- questions
Children’s drawings of concepts tend to …
- be different from commercially available symbo lsets
- include familiar people
- embed concepts in contexts
Developmentally Appropriate Symbols
The _______ value of a referent is also likely to affect its learnability
reinforcement
abstract symbol for highly desired item may be learned more readily than highly guessable symbol for a less desirable item
Children’s ability to identify and generalize symbols that depict abstract linguistic concepts can be affected by factors such as
- Concreteness
- Familiarity
- Context
- Wholeness
- Colour
- Focus
Concreteness
Clearly depicted people and/or observable activities
Familiarity
Symbols depicting familiar activities in context
Wholeness
Symbols depicting complete people or object rather than elements or parts that are separated/disjoined
Colour
Symbols that use bright colours to highlight contrasts and details are more easily discriminated and more interesting
Focus
Symbols that emphasize relevant characteristics via size and position of characters or objects, vs. use of arrows or other markers to draw attention to relevant details
Visual Scene Displays
Use pictures to depict situations, places, or experiences. Clear images are contextually rich and depict people or objects in relation to one another. Language concepts placed under “hot spots” on the picture that speak the related message out loud when activated.
Unaided symbols
Nonverbal behaviour, such as gestures, vocalizations, and other paralinguistic elements; physical characteristics (physique, body, and breath odour); proxemics (seating arrangements, personal space requirements,); artefacts (clothes, perfume, makeup); and environmental factors that may influence impressions and interactions (neatness/disorder of a room)
Gestures
Fine and gross motor body movements, facial expressions, eye behaviours, and postures
Illustrators
Nonverbal behaviours that accompany speech and illustrate what is being said
1/ emphasize a word or phrase
2/ depict a referent or a spatial relationship
3/ depict the pacing of an event
4/ illustrate a verbal statement through repetition or substitution of a word or a phrase
- used less consciously, less deliberately than emblems
- most frequently when excited, when receiver not paying attention or not understanding, or when interaction is difficult
Emblems
gestural behaviours that can be translated or defined by a few words or a phrase and that can be used without speech to convey messages; high level of agreement within a culture; context-dependent
- comprehension may depend on cognitive and language abilities
Affect displays
Facial expressions or body movements that display emotional states
- more subtle, less stylized than emblems
- less intentional
- user may be unaware, although obvious to receiver
Regulators
Nonverbal behaviours that maintain and regulate conversational speaking and listening between two or more people
- initiate or terminate interactions
- tell speaker to continue, repeat, elaborate, hurry up, change topic, give listener chance to speak
- tend to be culturally-bound
- e..g head nods, eye behaviours
- emitted almost involuntarily
Adaptors
- Used more often when alone, not intentionally used in communication
- may be triggered by interactions that produce emotional responses
self-adaptors: manipulations of one’s own body (holding, rubbing ,scratching, pinching)
object-adaptors: manipulation of objects, learned later in life , have less social stigma
alter adaptors: learned early in life, in conjunction with interpersonal experiences, such as giving and taking or protecting oneself against impending harm
Vocalizations
People who have difficulty with speech often produce vocalizations that are communicative in nature, ranging from involuntary sounds (sneezing, coughing) to voluntary vocalizations, such as yawning, laughing, crying, moaning, yelling, belching, uh-huh, uh-uh,
- May be idiosyncratic and require interpretation by people familiar wit the individual’s repertoire of voice signals
Partner vocalizations / speech
May be used in auditory scanning
20 questions
Manual Sign Systems
Prior to 1990, manual signing was the form of augmentative communication used most often with people diagnosed as having autism or ID.
Six reasons why manual sign approaches might be appropriate alternatives to speech-only:
- language input is simplified and rate slowed when signs combined with speech
- expressive responding facilitated by reduction in physical demands and psychological pressure for speech and by enhancement of interventionist’s ability to shape gradual approximations and provide physical guidance
- vocabulary that is limited yet functional can be taught while maintaining the individual’s attention
- allow simplified language input while minimizing auditory short-term memory and processing requirements
- stimulus processing is facilitated with use of visual mode, which has temporal and referential advantages over the speech mode
- advantage over speech/symbolic representations because some signs are closer visually to their referents than are spoken words.
Manual Signs - Considerations for use
Intelligibility - most signs cannot be guesses by unfamiliar individuals
Iconicity - signs with high iconicity are easier to learn and to recognize
Motoric Complexity - first signs 1/ require contact between hands, 2/ produced in neutral space in front of body, against chin, mouth, forehead, or trunk, 3/ require single simple manual alphabet handshape, 4/ require bidirectional movements
Other considerations
Manual Signs - Combining with Speech or other AAC techniques
- Combined sign + speech intervention is often more effective in establishing production and/or comprehension skills than either mode taught singly
- “Simultaneous Communication” / “Total Communication”
- signs + line-drawing symbols on SGD > sign-alone in teaching use of two-word utterances
Manual Sign System refers to ..
three main types of systems
1/ Alternatives to spoken language of a particular country
2/ those that parallel spoken languages
3/ those that interact with or supplement another means of transmitting a spoken language
