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Communicative Competence: Strategic

NWACS

Communicative Competence: Strategic

skills contributing to communicative competence

Strategic competence is having ways to fix communication issues. And ways to increase the effectiveness of one’s communication. And knowing when and how to use them. Strategies may be temporary (like when developing skills in other areas) or long-term. Strategic competence “largely determines the extent to which an individual is able to participate in the interaction process when using a communication system.” (Alant, 2017, p. 27) It is the ability to realize there is a communication problem and take steps to fix it. It is knowing that being kind and polite will get different results than being surly and rude. It is knowing how to best use the features of the AAC system to get a message across with as little effort and time as possible.

Skills within the strategic competence area include knowledge, use, and judgement of:

  • telling that a word is not available and giving clues for the partner to guess

  • asking for choices when the needed word is not available

  • using word prediction to increase rate of communication and/or decrease fatigue

  • using pre-stored messages in some situations - when on the phone, with the doctor, to explain about AAC, etc.

  • using gestures to help communication

  • choosing a way to communicate that fits the situation - using whisper-mode or light-tech AAC during a movie, etc.

  • being creative to fix communication errors, breakdowns or problems

  • using telegraphic communication (not full, correct sentences) to improve rate of communication

  • changing the “formalness” of communication based on the communication partner

The goal is that the person effectively and efficiently meets their communication goals. And with all partners and in all environments.

References:

Alant, E. (2017). Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Engagement and Participation. Plural Publishing.

Janice Light & David McNaughton (2014) Communicative Competence for Individuals who require Augmentative and Alternative Communication: A New Definition for a New Era of Communication?, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 30:1, 1-18, DOI: 10.3109/07434618.2014.885080

Related posts:

Communicative Competence - for an introduction overview of Communicative Competence, check out this post

Communicative Competence: Operational - for a closer look at the area of operational competence, check out this post

Communicative Competence: Psychosocial - for a closer look at the area of psychosocial competence, check out this post

Communicative Competence: Self-Advocacy - for a closer look at the area of self-advocacy competence, check out this post

Communicative Competence: Linguistic - for a closer look at the area of linguistic competence, check out this post

Communicative Competence: Social - for a closer look at the area of social competence, check out this post

Communicative Competence: Emotional - for a closer look at the area of emotional competence, check out this post

Wrap-up post of our exploration of communicative competence in AAC