BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FEATURE MATCHING IN AAC EVALUATIONS
Today, we're diving into a crucial aspect of AAC evaluations: feature matching. This term might sound familiar, but let's unravel its significance and understand how it plays an important role in our evaluation process
UNDERSTANDING FEATURE MATCHING
Feature matching is about tailoring AAC devices to meet individual communication needs. It involves assessing various device features, from icons and hardware to accessibility methods and organization, to find the best fit for the user.
TWO MAIN DEVICE FEATURES
LANGUAGE ORGANIZATION
An important feature of an AAC evaluation is the way the icons are arranged to support developing utterances. When we first started with AAC systems used to be primarily phrase-based systems. This dramatically impacted individuals’ ability to develop novel utterances. Now, we see a combination of category-based, motor planning-based, or text-based systems. What do these look like?
Category-Based Systems: A core word home page with a variety of category based pages within the system. An individual will go to the play folder to find items for play or the food folder to find food items.
Example systems TouchChat withWordpower and Proloquo2go
Motor Planning-Based Systems: A core word home page with specific attention to where all the locations are. Typically words only appear once within these systems and only require a few activations to get there.
Example systems TD Snap Motor Planning, LAMP, and Speak for Yourself
Text-Based Systems: The main focus here is on the keyboard with occasional buttons for quick words or phrases
Example systems Proloquo4text, Speech Assistant
ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES
Accessibility encompasses various elements like direct selection, eye gaze, scanning, keyguards, and program settings preventing repeat selections. We want to start with direct selection, as approrpaite, as it is often the fastest method. As needed we can explore different accessibility features for access.
Direct Selection: touching the device to select a location
Keyguards: Plastic overlays for devices that allow for more precise selection
Activation Settings: Activate on release or delay can allow more time for an individual to process quick moving devices (this is not to be used to decrease stimming)
Alternative Access: scanning, head pointing, and eye gaze are common alternate access methods - reach out to your device reps to trial these options.
CORE FEATURES THAT SHOULD BE PRESENT:
Access to core and fringe vocabulary
Editing appearance
Voice options & language
Keyboard
Possibility to add a phrase
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Feature matching is an integral part of the evaluation process, ensuring that the selected device meets the individual's communication needs. It's not about exploring every option but about using clinical judgment to determine what the individual needs most.
Lauren Greenlief