AMANDA HYNAN FINAL THESIS PDF

Petrides, Griffiths, Lysley & Price, 2012). AAC can augment (add to) or act as an
alternative to natural speech and writing, and understanding communication needs
will guide different strategy decisions (Alant et al. 2006). This section will give an
overview of the field of AAC in order to explain how it works. It will also look at the
impact that using AAC has on face-to-face interactions and outline some of the
resulting conversational challenges. It is necessary to raise these issues in order to
orientate the reader to topics that arise within the course of the thesis and to give
context to how they relate to the internet and online social media, as there are overlaps
with AAC equipment (section 2.2.2), access technology (section 2.2.3) and language
representation (section 2.2.4). Issues of interactional strategies (section 2.2.5), time
(section 2.2.6) and narrative challenges (section 2.2.7) are relevant to the data
collection, transcription and data analysis sections and contextualise how being online
intersects with issues of face-to-face communication for people who use AAC.
AAC is described on the Communication Matters website
(www.communicationmatters.org.uk) as using techniques which support or replace
spoken communication. Murray and Goldbart (2009) provide a summary of four
interconnected components that are useful to consider when thinking about an AAC
system:
the mode - meaning what type of AAC system a person is using
the means – referring to how someone accesses their communication mode,
they can either do this via direct connection with a device or indirectly through
some kind of scanning system and one or more switches
the representational system being used – is it written language, symbols,
photographs etc.
the interaction strategies - e.g. starting conversations, changing topics,
repairing communication breakdowns
2.2.2. The mode
Many young people with physical impairments and complex communication needs
that prevent them using natural speech often develop effective non-verbal forms of
communication with people who know them well. At some stage a decision may be
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