Investigation of Blissymbol use from a language research paradigm

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study that analyzed the morphosyntactic complexity of the language output of three congenitally physically disabled Spanish individuals who use Blissymbolics as their primary means of expression. Three methods were used to collect Blissymbol output by each individual over a 1-week period. All Blissymbol output collected for each subject was analyzed in terms of its morphosyntactic complexity. Results indicate that these individuals were able to convey a wide variety of messages using different morphosyntactic structures. Implications of the findings with respect to language issues in AAC are discussed.

• augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
• Blissymbols
• language research
• strategic competence