Semantic Organisation of Adults with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Symbols on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems are frequently organised according to semantic categories, yet little is known about the semantic categorisation of individuals who have no functional speech. Fifty adults with cerebral palsy who have little or no functional speech and use AAC participated in a study to explore how they ranked exemplars of the superordinate categories fruit, clothing, furniture, and transport. The rankings were correlated with the results of a study of the rankings of nondisabled college students on a similar task. Overall, the concordance between the two groups was good. Examination of individual results suggested that some participants used different semantic associations. This variance may be explained by the life experiences of the participants. To design optimally accessible communication systems, AAC professionals may need to consider how each individual organises semantic information.