An Activity Systemic Approach to Augmentative and Alternative Communication

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and highlight how Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) can contribute to the understanding of the different factors at play when a person is using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). It is based on data from a 3-year project concerning activity-based vocabulary design of voice output communication aids (VOCAs). Four persons who used AAC and their assistants were interviewed about shopping activities and their views about a vocabulary that included pre-stored phrases. A CHAT model, the Activity Diamond, was applied in an analysis of the data. The result was a multiplicity of human, artifactual, and natural factors, in which six themes were identified: Attitude/Preference, Expectation/Trust, Goal/Power, Place/Space, Time/Learning, and Usability/Accessibility. The themes are exemplified and discussed in relation to AAC.

[1]  J. Searle.  A classification of illocutionary acts , 1976, Language in Society.

[2]  David P. Wilkins,et al.  Key principles underlying research and practice in AAC , 2007, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[3]  Kathleen F. McCoy,et al.  Hierarchy of Conversational Rule Violations Involving Utterance-Based Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems , 2008, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[4]  Jens Allwood.  Capturing differences between social activities in spoken language , 2001 .

[5]  Teresa Iacono,et al.  Topics of meal-break conversations , 1998 .

[6]  S. Greenberg,et al.  The Psychology of Everyday Things , 2012 .

[7]  Victor Kaptelinin,et al.  Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design , 2006, First Monday.

[8]  D. Laplane.  Thought and language. , 1992, Behavioural neurology.

[9]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[10]  L. S. Vygotskiĭ,et al.  Mind in society : the development of higher psychological processes , 1978 .

[11]  Norman Alm,et al.  Modelling conversational pragmatics in communication aids , 2003 .

[12]  Alekseĭ Nikolaevich Leontʹev.  Problems of the development of the mind , 1981 .

[13]  A. N. Leont’ev,et al.  Activity, consciousness, and personality , 1978 .

[14]  David McNaughton,et al.  AAC technologies to enhance participation and access to meaningful societal roles for adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities who require AAC , 2007, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[15]  Kevin Caves,et al.  Access to AAC: Present, past, and future , 2007, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[16]  Kathleen F. McCoy,et al.  Brevity and speed of message delivery trade-offs in augmentative and alternative communication , 2007, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[17]  Pelle Ehn,et al.  Work-oriented design of computer artifacts , 1989 .

[18]  Klaus Krippendorff,et al.  Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology , 1980 .

[19]  Kathleen F. McCoy,et al.  Relevance and speed of message delivery trade-offs in augmentative and alternative communication. , 2003, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[20]  Susan Balandin,et al.  Prediction and selection of vocabulary for two leisure activities , 2007, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[21]  Per-Olof Hedvall,et al.  The Activity Diamond - Modeling an Enhanced Accessibility , 2009 .

[22]  Jens Allwood,et al.  An activity-based approach to pragmatics , 2000, Abduction, Belief and Context in Dialogue.

[23]  Sheri Hunnicutt,et al.  Improving word prediction using Markov models and Heuristic methods , 2001 .

[24]  Kathryn Drager,et al.  AAC technologies for young children with complex communication needs: State of the science and future research directions , 2007, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[25]  D. Beukelman,et al.  Augmentative & Alternative Communication: Supporting Children & Adults With Complex Communication Needs , 2006 .

[26]  Kimberly A. Neuendorf,et al.  The Content Analysis Guidebook , 2001 .

[27]  Yrjö Engeström,et al.  From Teams to Knots: Activity-Theoretical Studies of Collaboration and Learning at Work , 2008 .

[28]  Norman Alm,et al.  Whole Utterance Approaches in AAC , 2008, Augmentative and alternative communication.

[29]  John L. Arnott,et al.  A script-based AAC system for transactional interaction , 1998, Natural Language Engineering.

[30]  Linda C. Mechling,et al.  Computer-Based Video Instruction to Teach the Use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices for Ordering at Fast-Food Restaurants , 2006 .

[31]  Y. Engeström,et al.  Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization , 2001 .

[32]  Jacob L. Mey,et al.  Pragmatics: An Introduction , 2001 .