by Julia Wynne, MA, CCC-SLP (Speech-Language Pathologist); NWACS Contributor

It is no small feat for a person who uses Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to learn grammatical morphemes. Many individuals who are learning to use AAC have difficulty with receptive and expressive grammar. These individuals tend to use telegraphic messages when communicating. There are a variety of reasons that individuals who use AAC have more difficulty with grammar, including how communication partners interact with the individuals and issues with speech-generating devices. Children who learn language using AAC also usually hear spoken language but communicate using symbols. This study looks at how to teach grammatical morphemes to children who use AAC through aided AAC models, recasts, and contrastive targets.

Below you will find definitions of some key terms. Keywords will be bolded throughout the post. I will then present the research questions and will follow that with a summary of the findings. Finally, I will note the most important takeaways from the research article. Away we go!

Using AAC Models, Recasts, and Contrastive Targets to Teach Grammatical Morphemes to Children Who Use AAC

Aided AAC models: a communication strategy, where a communication partner teaches symbol meaning and models language by combining his or her own verbal input with a selection of vocabulary or symbols on the AAC system. This process is done by selecting vocabulary on the AAC system and speaking at the same time.

Concurrent: at the same time

Contrastive models: presenting models for more than one target grammatical morpheme at the same time

Expressive language: sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings through speaking, gestures, signs, etc.

Grammatical morphemes: a part of a word usually added at the end that adds to or changes the meaning of the word

Example: adding -ed to a verb to mean that the action happened in the past

Input/Output Asymmetry: children who learn expressive language using AAC but only hear spoken language

Recast: when a grammatical error is made, the communication partner repeats the message using the correct grammar

Receptive language: understanding what others are saying

Semantics: meaning

Sequential: one after the other

Telegraphic messages: messages containing just a few key words

The purpose of this study was to look at the use of AAC models and recasts to teach children who use AAC to produce grammatical morphemes.

Learning grammar is difficult for many individuals who use AAC for many reasons. Communication partners tend to ask many yes/no questions and take more turns in a conversation. They can fail to respond to communication attempts and do not give the AAC communicator many opportunities to communicate. These strategies can speed up the process of communicating with a person who uses AAC, which can be quite slow. There are also issues with technology, such as a lack of vocabulary and grammatical morphemes in the communication system. There is also an input/output asymmetry for individuals who communicate through symbols, which means that they learn to express themselves through symbols, but only hear spoken language. It is difficult for a child learning language to match a spoken “s” sound at the end of a word to a symbol on their device. It is, therefore, necessary to describe a process for teaching grammatical structures to children who use AAC. To make morphological markers more apparent, as well as show the AAC user which symbol to use, aided AAC models and recasts were studied as strategies.

Three children participated in the study, each learning three grammatical markers. Storybooks were used as the materials for the therapy. While reading the story, the researcher provided aided AAC models and recasts of the targeted morpheme. The children were not required to use their AAC devices when reading the stories. However, if they made sentences with incorrect grammar (e.g., HE IS EAT), they were given an aided recast of the correct grammar (e.g., HE IS EAT+ING). Once the children mastered one of the grammatical markers, they moved on to the next targeted morpheme. The children had difficulty maintaining the use of first targets when the second targets were introduced, so the researchers began using contrastive models. This contrast helped children to differentiate between the grammatical morphemes that they were learning. The students were able to learn the third targets using these contrastive models quickly.

The methods used in the present study needed revising. One necessary change was to contrast targets by teaching more than one grammatical morpheme at a time. Therefore, concurrent, rather than sequential learning, is beneficial in learning targets that are difficult to discriminate. Contrasting various grammatical morphemes, even those that are unrelated, can help children who use AAC to learn grammatical markers. Most symbol-based communication systems are based on semantics, or meaning, which makes it challenging to represent grammatical markers that do not carry meaning. Any AAC grammar program must consider the difficulties of applying spoken language to symbolic communication.

Please comment with any thoughts or questions!

Full article link: https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0163)

Reference

Binger, C., Maguire-Marshall, M., & Kent-Walsh, J. (2011). Using aided AAC models, recasts, and contrastive targets to teach grammatical morphemes to children who use AAC. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54, 160–176.

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