Module: Communication Across the Day for Complex Learners Using AAC - Micro Lesson: Feature Matching

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04/16/2025 Added

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Micro Lesson: Feature Matching

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[00:00:00.000]I know that there are aided devices, I know that there are unaided devices, I know that
[00:00:13.560]these are all these different communication modalities.
[00:00:17.280]What do we do next when we're thinking about our learners or what our next steps are?
[00:00:21.660]How do we decide?
[00:00:22.660]There are so many options.
[00:00:24.840]How do we decide what would be the best option for this specific learner versus the person
[00:00:31.760]that they sit next to or the person down the hall when those might be totally different
[00:00:35.400]things?
[00:00:36.400]And so that is a process called feature matching.
[00:00:40.920]And so we'll talk a little bit about what feature matching looks like and the different
[00:00:44.580]features of devices or systems as we go along.
[00:00:48.300]This is just an overview slide.
[00:00:50.020]So this is an assessment process.
[00:00:53.500]It's always multidisciplinary.
[00:00:54.500]So a lot of times it is the SLP that takes the lead on this as the person who has a lot
[00:01:01.740]of knowledge about communication, but you are always wanting to involve, if that student
[00:01:07.740]has some fine motor needs, what is our OT saying about how big or small that selection
[00:01:13.720]can be?
[00:01:16.020]Can they take maybe the Velcro, pull the picture off the Velcro and put it somewhere else or
[00:01:20.620]is that Velcro too difficult for them?
[00:01:24.160]If we're looking at sign language or finger spelling, do they have the dexterity to do
[00:01:29.380]that?
[00:01:30.380]If that learner uses a wheelchair or a walker or a cane, what does our physical therapist
[00:01:36.000]think about how heavy it could be or how light it needs to be or could we modify that walker
[00:01:42.820]with a little basket or something so they can transport the device by themselves?
[00:01:49.720]If there are visual concerns, we have just such an amazing
[00:01:53.820]teacher of the visually impaired here who I have gotten to team with on selecting devices
[00:01:59.440]and positioning devices and things that I really hadn't ever considered for a lot of
[00:02:06.720]students.
[00:02:07.720]So to say that that device needs to be in their upper right quadrant because this is
[00:02:11.440]where their visual field is.
[00:02:12.920]So where do they need that for the best visual access?
[00:02:17.260]So working with all of those teammates to make sure that what you're setting up really
[00:02:21.080]does consider everything.
[00:02:23.480]We're thinking about what they need right now and also what they need in the future.
[00:02:27.880]So how is that going to grow with them?
[00:02:30.780]Because of course our goal is that they develop vocabulary, that we need to expand it, that
[00:02:35.500]they get more words, that they have more communication partners.
[00:02:38.620]So thinking about where do we want to be in five years with this system or this process?
[00:02:44.920]Who will the new communication partners be and how can the system grow with the learner?
[00:02:50.480]And always, always, like I said, involves that communication.
[00:02:53.140]That communicator and the primary communication partners.
[00:02:57.040]Don't underestimate the power that a person feels by being able to say I like the cover
[00:03:03.460]that's pink or I like the cover that's blue or I like the yellow one.
[00:03:07.800]Like some of those things when they haven't had a lot of choices in their learning so
[00:03:13.840]far in their school or in their communication are really, really powerful.
[00:03:21.380]So we want to be looking at a balance.
[00:03:22.800]We want to be looking at a bunch of different things when we're thinking about the system.
[00:03:26.340]So first the packaging.
[00:03:28.740]So what is it that we're looking at?
[00:03:31.380]Is it a device like you submit through insurance and do the whole process and it's a very customized
[00:03:38.700]and very expensive device?
[00:03:40.840]What hardware do we need?
[00:03:42.280]So that gets at, is it a tablet this big?
[00:03:44.980]Is it a tablet this big?
[00:03:46.900]Does it have a handle?
[00:03:47.900]Does it have an external speaker?
[00:03:49.420]What does the actual hardware look like that we need?
[00:03:52.460]Is it a book?
[00:03:53.420]Is it a board?
[00:03:54.800]So once we've kind of looked at those things,
[00:03:56.660]we can look at some of the programming.
[00:03:58.840]So what is the software we're using?
[00:04:00.640]And there are so many of those these days,
[00:04:04.900]both from the big companies that we know about,
[00:04:07.320]but also a lot of the apps,
[00:04:09.540]a lot of the apps that you can put on an iPad or a tablet.
[00:04:14.540]There are a lot of options for those right now.
[00:04:18.340]And then we get into what's the display look like?
[00:04:20.940]So what vocabulary,
[00:04:22.120]what do you see on that device?
[00:04:23.600]What do you see on the homepage?
[00:04:25.920]What's the quantity of that?
[00:04:27.400]So what are their cognitive skills,
[00:04:30.000]their fine motor skills,
[00:04:31.460]their learning skills look like?
[00:04:32.780]Can they handle the whole page
[00:04:34.820]of looking at 36 things at once?
[00:04:36.840]Or does that need broken down into pages of 10
[00:04:40.060]or something like that?
[00:04:41.980]How are we representing those things?
[00:04:44.100]So if you're familiar with visual representation hierarchies
[00:04:48.940]where we go from real objects to,
[00:04:51.780]to photos of real things,
[00:04:54.180]to maybe our pecs or our symbol sticks,
[00:04:57.480]to black and white line drawings,
[00:04:59.420]to words that are all different levels,
[00:05:01.440]depending on the level of your learner,
[00:05:03.900]that might be the most appropriate representation.
[00:05:06.720]We're going to do an activity with some of that
[00:05:11.160]as we get to the end of this section.
[00:05:13.680]How is it organized?
[00:05:15.400]Again, the quantity, the layout, the size,
[00:05:18.540]and all of those kinds of things.
[00:05:20.360]So there is a lot,
[00:05:21.440]a lot to consider when looking at this.
[00:05:24.560]So symbol features.
[00:05:28.940]What symbols does that user understand?
[00:05:31.120]Is it photos? Is it colored drawings?
[00:05:33.280]Is it text? Are they a reader?
[00:05:35.480]So we don't need pictures.
[00:05:36.700]We can just put the text on there.
[00:05:38.200]What linguistic features does your system have?
[00:05:42.440]So we're thinking about our learners' cognitive skills,
[00:05:45.820]their expressive and receptive language skills.
[00:05:48.560]So do we need some pre-created
[00:05:51.100]pages? How complex is that language?
[00:05:54.400]Are we using single words or stored phrases?
[00:05:57.800]There are systems that are scene-based.
[00:05:59.760]So when you open that up, it maybe shows the picture
[00:06:02.760]of that preschool classroom with some specific
[00:06:05.760]vocabulary. If you are touching
[00:06:08.760]the whiteboard versus if you're touching the art center or whatever
[00:06:11.760]that is. The size, the grid,
[00:06:14.760]how many options are there for vocabulary?
[00:06:17.260]Voice features. So what type of output is it
[00:06:20.760]is best understood
[00:06:22.000]by communication partners. So when you are thinking about who is this learner communicating
[00:06:28.880]with, what does that communication partner understand or is most likely to understand?
[00:06:35.340]So sign language is an absolutely wonderful way to communicate if your communication partners or
[00:06:41.940]the person, the people that student is communicating with understand sign language. If you just go,
[00:06:47.620]to the post office and the clerk at the desk there does not understand sign language,
[00:06:51.900]what would be the backup plan? So do they need something with voice output?
[00:06:56.460]Message storing refers to when you can record your own voice on there. And so some of our
[00:07:04.160]learners who maybe have something that is degenerative in nature, and we're getting
[00:07:08.980]them set up with something while they do still have their verbal speech systems have message
[00:07:14.000]storing. So that device can actually contain their own voice and their own words. I haven't
[00:07:21.500]actually personally used that, but I feel like there's so much artificial intelligence
[00:07:25.760]happening right now with that. That's really cool. Does the gender, the age, the pitch
[00:07:31.240]match to however they identify? So if we have a little preschooler, is that voice output
[00:07:36.740]sounding like, you know, an 80-year-old woman? That probably isn't the best option there.
[00:07:41.140]Does it need to be bilingual? How loud does it need to be? Are they in a loud classroom?
[00:07:47.180]Do they need to have an external speaker to make that louder?
[00:07:51.300]And more heard? Access is the next one.
[00:07:57.460]So how will they access it? Are they direct selecting, which means that they're taking their finger or fingers or whatever and pushing things directly?
[00:08:05.640]Do they need something like a stylus? So maybe they can't isolate that finger, but they can do some sort of grip on a stylus.
[00:08:13.880]So can they use that to select? Maybe it's a mouse or a joystick. Maybe it's eye gaze.
[00:08:21.100]Or maybe scanning where they're using a button or a switch to go through rows and columns to select what they want.
[00:08:28.200]What does that display look like? So how big is the grid? What is the spacing?
[00:08:34.140]Do they need a grid protector, which is kind of like a plastic thing that separates the buttons?
[00:08:40.320]So maybe if they have some trouble with some dragging, those can isolate those buttons.
[00:08:46.420]What does the navigation look like? Message windows?
[00:08:50.900]Do they need something specific based on visual needs?
[00:08:53.560]So does it need to be a black background with yellow symbols because of our work with the teacher of the visually impaired?
[00:09:00.640]How big is the font? Is the background busy or very, very not busy? Things like that.
[00:09:06.700]Portability is also something. So how will the communicator transport the device?
[00:09:12.800]And we always want that to be as independent as possible, whether it's mounted to their wheelchair or in the basket in their walker
[00:09:20.700]or it has a strap that they're carrying, it has handles that they're carrying.
[00:09:24.060]We want that to be just as independent as possible because we don't want access to that communication device
[00:09:31.520]to depend on whether or not the adult remembers it.
[00:09:34.540]We always want students to take that on as much as they can.
[00:09:38.480]So how big is it? How heavy is it? Does it have a case? Does it have straps?
[00:09:43.620]Does it have handles mounted to a wheelchair? All of those things.
[00:09:47.540]And then operational features are.
[00:09:50.500]Anything else that the communicator needs?
[00:09:53.180]So how long does the battery last?
[00:09:55.940]If they are not able to, you know, like click that screen off and on,
[00:10:00.320]do we need something with a super powerful battery that can be on all day?
[00:10:04.800]What's the warranty like? Do we think that there, you know,
[00:10:09.040]maybe is a possibility that this learner is going to chuck the device across
[00:10:13.360]the room and we need to have a really good warranty option for that.
[00:10:18.820]Funding.
[00:10:20.300]Funding is just one of the biggest things always, you know,
[00:10:23.920]we might make some,
[00:10:24.900]some excellent decisions and some excellent recommendations,
[00:10:27.860]but then these things are expensive. So what does funding look like?
[00:10:31.880]Does the family have insurance that maybe can be accessed if there's a
[00:10:36.580]medical need as well? Is that something that school is providing?
[00:10:40.260]Does the family have an iPad and now we just need to know what app
[00:10:45.960]I've seen that go half and half to where a family has said, Hey,
[00:10:50.100]I have the iPad, but would the school pay to put the app on it, you know,
[00:10:54.280]to buy the app or whatever. So what is the funding who's paying for it?
[00:10:58.160]And not only that, but as we're thinking about our transition age learners,
[00:11:02.240]how, you know, if that is provided by the school,
[00:11:04.700]what does the funding then look like once they graduate?
[00:11:07.420]How can we support, you know,
[00:11:09.880]maybe vocational rehab in funding that or looking at different funding
[00:11:15.880]sources or switching that over to insurance or whatever that looks like.
[00:11:19.900]Tech support.
[00:11:21.100]So who is the tech support and how is that accessed?
[00:11:23.780]How often is that accessed?
[00:11:25.460]Does it need internet access or do we definitely not want internet access?
[00:11:30.720]That can really go either way,
[00:11:33.400]depending on how often you think your learner might be watching YouTube
[00:11:37.900]videos instead of using that as a communication device.
[00:11:40.920]And how easy is it to edit?
[00:11:43.280]How, you know, if we are doing a lot of that editing,
[00:11:45.800]if we're training parents to do that editing, how easy is that?
[00:11:49.700]So that is a lot of the things that we are talking about.
[00:11:55.340]I mean, there, there's a lot to consider beyond just,
[00:11:59.440]I heard a presentation from this company once.
[00:12:02.620]And so I'm going to, you know, recommend this.
[00:12:05.020]So there are a whole lot of different considerations when we're thinking
[00:12:08.220]about, like Megan mentioned,
[00:12:09.920]what is functional and functional is different for, for all of our learners.
[00:12:14.200]Functional is different for me than it is for Megan.
[00:12:17.740]And so thinking,
[00:12:19.500]through all of these different options working with these different
[00:12:22.820]professionals to make sure that we have our learner set up the best way
[00:12:26.580]possible.
[00:12:27.020]And so I think that's a really important thing to think about.
[00:12:28.980]And so I think that's a really important thing to think about.
[00:12:32.020]Thank you.

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Module: Communication Across the Day for Complex Learners Using AAC - Micro Lesson: Feature Matching

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