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Technology Solutions and Programs to Promote Leisure and Communication Activities with People with Intellectual and other Disabilities
Published in Christopher M. Hayre, Dave J. Muller, Marcia J. Scherer, Everyday Technologies in Healthcare, 2019
Giulio E. Lancioni, Nirbhay N. Singh, Mark F. O’Reilly, Jeff Sigafoos
Using verbal utterances as communication means is certainly an advantage compared to using signs and pictorial representations (Sigafoos et al., 2009; van der Meer et al., 2012, 2017). Indeed, verbal utterances are immediately understood by anybody inside and outside of the education/rehabilitation or care context in which the person spends time. The type of technology available to help non-verbal people express themselves verbally is the speech-generating device (SGD). A variety of SGDs exist and the ways in which they are used can also vary across contexts and people (Kagohara et al., 2013; Lorah et al., 2015; Mullennix & Stern, 2010; van der Meer et al., 2017). For example, Schepis and Reid (1995) used an SGD for an adult who was reported to be in the profound range of intellectual disability and presented with extensive motor impairment. The SGD was set up to make four verbal requests concerning four preferred items. The participant could activate any request by touching the corresponding picture on the SGD’s panel. Initially, the participant was introduced to the device and helped to use it. Then, the participant was provided with the device for specific parts of the day. Data showed that the participant used the device to make a number of requests, and as a consequence the amount of interaction between staff and participant increased.
Assistive Technologies for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published in Stefano Federici, Marcia J. Scherer, Assistive Technology Assessment Handbook, 2017
Chiara Pazzagli, Giovanni Fatuzzo, Simone Donnari, Valentina Canonico, Giulia Balboni, Claudia Mazzeschi
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is one of the most employed MLD. AAC includes a set of techniques, strategies, and technologies that are used to simplify and increase communication in persons who have difficulties using the most common communication channels, mainly oral language and writing. AAC techniques for individuals with ASD include picture exchange, picture exchange communication system, speech generating devices, and voice output communication aids. The first two are very well-known techniques, developed by Bondy and Frost (1994), and evaluated in the last 20 years. Speech generating devices and voice output communication aids are “electronic devices that rely on the speaker's pressing of a picture, word, or symbol depicting an item, activity, response or statement on an electronic screen with enough force to evoke a synthetic speech output” (Lorah and Parnell, 2014, p. 3793).
School-based allied health interventions for children and young people affected by neurodisability: a systematic evidence map
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2023
Jennifer McAnuff, Jenny L. Gibson, Rob Webster, Kulwinder Kaur-Bola, Sarah Crombie, Aimee Grayston, Lindsay Pennington
Table 9 presents the 46 sub-categories in order of number of studies included in each sub-category. The top ten outcome sub-categories were: (i) expressive language and communication, (ii) receptive language and communication, (iii) broad social communication and interaction (e.g., social skills, shared attention, pragmatic language skills), (iv) teacher and teaching assistant knowledge and skills, (v) gross motor skills, (vi) writing and learning to write, (vii) on task behaviour and engagement in the classroom, (viii) fine motor skills, (ix) using speech-generating devices, and (x) social interaction specifically with peers. Table 9 also sets out outcome sub-categories by intervention leadership. Overall, intervention leadership reflected field of expertise for outcome sub-categories, for example interventions targeting language and communication outcomes were primarily led by speech and language therapists. Otherwise, it was noteworthy that teacher and teaching assistant knowledge and skills was the fourth largest outcome sub-category, indicating that these professionals are commonly receiving as well as delivering allied health interventions.
Problematizing ‘productive citizenship’ within rehabilitation services: insights from three studies
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2020
Joanna K. Fadyl, Gail Teachman, Yani Hamdani
Unlike many disabled students who experience education in segregated social spaces, Sarah was placed almost exclusively in mainstream classes. Throughout her schooling, she engaged in arduous and ongoing struggles, regardless of the personal costs, to meet the standards ‘normally’ expected of her non-disabled peers, and to disavow any positioning as ‘disabled’, ‘different’ or having ‘special’ needs. Though she was unable to walk, and had significant communication impairments, Sarah had gone to great lengths to present herself as ‘normal’, independent and capable. For example, she used a power wheelchair, but resisted other assistive technologies, stating: “I feel stupid using a speech-generating device…it is just not a good fit. It’s not me”. She explained that using a letter display to spell out words showed that she was “normal” and “smart enough to spell”. Sarah’s account suggests she was acutely aware that in most fields, assistive technologies signal dependencies and detract from the user’s legitimacy as a normal or non-disabled person. To use a speech-generating device, according to the logics she had internalized, would be to acknowledge and make visible her communication impairments. The tradeoff was that her communication interactions were constrained by the availability of a familiar interlocutor which greatly reduced opportunities for her to interact socially. She had earned a high school diploma and had been elected prom queen - a distinction that she valued as recognition of her persistence in ‘overcoming’ disability.
Strategies for communicating with conscious mechanically ventilated critically ill patients
Published in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 2019
Speech-generating devices or voice-output communication aids are handheld devices that allow patients to touch a word or picture icon to generate prerecorded messages. Computer communication systems contain databases that include the possibility to provide free text, select letters to form phrases, or select icons with actions, symbols, or preformed messages. The user may combine options to deliver messages, which can be read or amplified by voice synthesizers. The system allows Internet connectivity and utilization of email, social media, and other usual computer functions. Navigation through these devices is possible by buttons, mouse clicking, touch screen, or infrared eye-blink detector. More sophisticated systems incorporate an eye-tracking device, which allows gaze control of the system, not relying on motor ability.