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Spelling to Communicate (S2C) provides nonspeakers, minimally speaking, and unreliable speakers the resources needed to communicate with the use of a letterboard or keyboard, as compared to traditional oral communication. S2C addresses motor differences that affect a person's ability to orally express their language and knowledge skills.
S2C works on purposeful motor skills by pointing accurately to letters on the letter boards as an alternative means of communication (AAC). This is accomplished through a multilevel approach of gestural and verbal prompts on increasingly complex letterboards. Providing age-appropriate lessons that ask a series of different level questions, provide regular motor practice. Practicing these motor movements consistently, creating automatic motor, will lead from communicating on a letter board to communicating with the use of a keyboard.
S2C is not facilitated communication!! The goal of spelling to communicate is to coach the spellers motor movements to make them automatic. This is done through a heirarchy of letterboards and age appropriate cognitive lessons as well as prompting the spellers motor to help teach them the purposeful motor movements necessary to communicate openly on a letter board. The more practice the more automatic the movements become and the less prompts that need to be used. When the speller is openly communicating there is NO directional or gestural prompts being used. Their communication is 100% their own thoughts and feelings. Like learning any new skill, you need that prompting and practice to make the necessary motor movements overlearned and automatic. Riding a bike for instance, you had to have that support to learn how to pedal and steer at the same time and it took practice to make it automatic. Once it was automatic you no longer needed assistance.
S2C is for those with apraxia/dyspraxia or motor sensory differences. It can be someone who is:
Nonspeaking- someone who does not speak or may have one or two words. Mostly what is heard is sounds.
Minimally Speaking- this is someone who can communicate simple request like they want to eat, but they are not able to form speech to communicate more in-depth thoughts like emotional responses.
Unreliable speakers- have a lot of speech but are not able to reliably communicate their true thoughts and feelings.
Around 70% of our clients are diagnosed with autism and 30% are diagnosed with something else like Down Syndrome, Angelman Syndrome, Rhett Syndrome and other diagnosis.
Apraxia or dyspraxia is when a person has difficulty initiating and executing purposeful motor movement. They have both the desire and ability to move, but there is a motor breakdown executing their plans and making adjustments. The motor ability is there, they are able to react to certain stimuli, their bodies are able to respond to dangerous situations (moving hand away from something hot). The struggle is not motor ability it is motor planning, they are able to have an idea and make a plan but then there is a breakdown from the cognitive piece to the motor piece. In S2C we call it a "brain body disconnect".
An example is if a person with apraxia had something coming towards their face and were not expecting it, they have the motor ability to react and protect themselves. If they are standing still and know a ball is coming to them (playing catch) they will have a hard time making the appropriate motor plan to catch the ball.
Spelling to communicate starts with presuming competence in our spellers. S2C believes that all individuals can and want to learn, we provide age-appropriate lessons to all our spellers. With a multilevel step approach on the boards, we are providing a cognitive/motor balance. With practice and engaging lessons spellers work their way up from three stencils to a keyboard. The process provides a lot of practice and this practice and the regular use of purposeful motor movements the spellers are myelinating those neurons creating automatic motor movements. "Practice make permanence"!
When it comes to apraxia and motor movement there are all different levels of severity; meaning there is no set time frame for someone to be openly communicating. It is different for everyone. The more they are on the letter boards, doing purposeful motor, the more practice they are getting. "Practice makes permanence"!
I will serve anyone from the age of 5 years old and up. There are people ages 65+ being served currently by S2C practitioners, everyone can benefit! With children under the age of 5, I suggest that families and caregivers give traditional speech therapy, occupational therapy, and early intervention a chance to work.
Absolutely not! AAC's like the use of letterboards, increases one's ability to communicate messages to other individuals. AAC's maximize functional communication for individuals with apraxia or a motor breakdown. Current research shows that AAC's will not stop a person from speaking, it has shown that in many cases it does the opposite.
Check out the following research article: Effects of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on Speech Production in Children With Autism: A Systematic Review | American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (asha.org)
S2C does not mean you can only use letterboards, we welcome the use of all types of communicatio; like spelling, AAC apps, and speech generating devices. The difference with some of the devices, like the picture apps, with the letter boards you can openly communicate all your thoughts and ideas. With picture apps you are limited to just the pictures, restricting the capability to openly communicate.
The International Association for Spelling as Communication (I-ASC) says that "Twenty-six letters equals infinite possibilities"
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