Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
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Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the process in which a person's disordered speech is augmented or assisted with communication technology. This study investigated the effects of vocabulary organization using branching capabilities of a high technology device on sentence construction. Information about vocabulary organization strategies might be important for addressing the language and literacy deficits that were noted in previous research with AAC users. The study attempted to investigate whether or not vocabulary organization in a grammatical sequence across one page or multiple pages would improve non-AAC users abilities to retell a story using AAC technology. Six students participated in the study. Two students aided in supplying the vocabulary for the study, while the remaining four participated in the experimental phase of the study. The experimental phase included the use of grammar organized into categories across a single page or a multiple page sequence. Each user participated in a sentence imitation, computer generated story task (CGST), and an oral story task. Preliminary findings suggested that organizing vocabulary by grammatical structure utilizing a multiple screen design was associated with greater accuracy for a sentence imitation task. Users of the multiple screen design were able to attend to symbols and form a pattern for scanning that was more effective for sentence imitation and sentence construction. Finally sentences generated with each screen design did differ from orally generated sentences in the overall total words, words/sentence ratio, total time, number of grammatical categories used and types of grammatical categories used.
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Communication devices for people with disabilities; Language disorders in children;
Abstract
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the process in which a person's disordered speech is augmented or assisted with communication technology. This study investigated the effects of vocabulary organization using branching capabilities of a high technology device on sentence construction. Information about vocabulary organization strategies might be important for addressing the language and literacy deficits that were noted in previous research with AAC users. The study attempted to investigate whether or not vocabulary organization in a grammatical sequence across one page or multiple pages would improve non-AAC users abilities to retell a story using AAC technology. Six students participated in the study. Two students aided in supplying the vocabulary for the study, while the remaining four participated in the experimental phase of the study. The experimental phase included the use of grammar organized into categories across a single page or a multiple page sequence. Each user participated in a sentence imitation, computer generated story task (CGST), and an oral story task. Preliminary findings suggested that organizing vocabulary by grammatical structure utilizing a multiple screen design was associated with greater accuracy for a sentence imitation task. Users of the multiple screen design were able to attend to symbols and form a pattern for scanning that was more effective for sentence imitation and sentence construction. Finally sentences generated with each screen design did differ from orally generated sentences in the overall total words, words/sentence ratio, total time, number of grammatical categories used and types of grammatical categories used.
Year of Submission
2000
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Communicative Disorders
First Advisor
Lauren Nelson
Second Advisor
Clifford Highnam
Third Advisor
David Landis
Date Original
2000
Object Description
1 PDF file (59 leaves)
Copyright
©2000 Daniel Thomas Baier
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Baier, Daniel Thomas, "The Effects of Symbol Organization Strategy on Syntactical Language Production in First Grade Children" (2000). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 1979.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/1979
Comments
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