Vocabulary to Support Socially-Valued Adult Roles

Abstract

Individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) have new expectations for life after high school. However, the vocabulary needed to support socially-valued adult roles may not be available in their communication devices. This study explored whether vocabulary needed to participate in six adult roles currently existed in three widely used symbol sets. Electronic mailing lists were used to generate words needed for each adult role. From these vocabulary sets, discrepancy analyses were conducted to determine whether symbols or symbol combinations in each of the symbol sets studied could represent those words. Results suggest that, overall, an average of 55% of the identified words was currently available in these symbol sets. The need for easily accessible vocabulary that reflects socially-valued adult roles is discussed.

Keywords:

• Vocabulary
• Adults
• Symbols