(Is a car more of a car because it is blue? No, but a symbol for grass may be easier to recognize if it’s green. In fact, there has been much research in the area of marketing and those results advise us to use the least amount of detail necessary to convey the meaning. Our assumption is that the addition of color, (making the car blue and the grass green, for example), helps people learn or remember the meaning. For some reason, a lot of us think that realistically colored symbols are ‘better’ than black and white symbols. Here’s a quick refresher.įirst, a comment about the lack of color.
#Proloquo meaning how to#
When computers and color printers made the process of getting colored symbols easier for us, that close-up-and-personal knowledge of how to use color effectively slowly faded for some clinicians. They could combine this with their knowledge of the Fitzgerald Key and design activity-based communication boards in their sleep. In those days, any SLP who got close to AAC knew the color guidelines from Carol Goossens’ and Sharon Crain or used their own modification. (“What color is PLEASE?” “Is MORE a descriptor?” “What part of speech is green?”) What we lost in time, we gained in working knowledge. Let’s face it, when clinicians spent time coloring in symbol backgrounds, they got VERY familiar with the color coding system. While I don’t necessarily miss the evenings hunched over the table trying to color within the lines, I do think we lost something in the process. There are still plenty of SLPs around who spent quality time with crayons and highlighters coloring the backgrounds and borders of symbols so we could differentiate symbols by part of speech or grammatical function. With more stylized, abstract images, we basically had symbols photocopied from books or AAC device overlays.
When concrete, realistic images were needed, we were limited to cutting pictures out of magazine or using photos taken with actual film and developed at the local drugstore. When I first started working in AAC, there were few options for using color in AAC symbols. Later in the month, we’ll talk about combining core and fringe vocabulary, designing boards for different purposes, and teaching activities. In this post, we’re focusing on the use of color to help us organize vocabulary so that the AAC users can locate specific messages quickly and efficiently. Throw in access to symbols, a laminator, or even clear contact paper, and we have all we need to begin developing tools that can give our clients access to language. But we generally have access to paper, a computer, and a printer. We may be waiting for that SGD to arrive. We may not have funding for a mobile device or AAC apps. Why focus on the lowly communication board? Lots of reasons, actually, but the main one is this: Almost all of us have access to resources that will allow us to make communication boards. This month, we’ll be talking about making and using communication boards. (I knew I should never have taught him interjections!) There’s no doubt – communication boards can be powerful tools for expression. In my days as a clinical fellow, I got ratted out by Davey, a client who used his 100-location Bliss board to tell the supervisor that I gave out seconds on coffee even though the rule was one cup per person. On the other hand, we have great respect and much fondness for the “no tech” communication aids and visual supports.Īs a student clinician, I made my first conversation book for Sherri, a young lady who had learned Bliss at school but had no communication materials in the institution where she was living.
We’re strong supporters of voice output systems and the autonomy they give to the children and adults with whom we work. We love AAC technology and are deeply grateful for the options that are available to people with significant communication difficulties.
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