Training in alternative and supported communication
Other forms of communication such as lip-reading, sign language, Braille, cued language or communication with pictures replace verbal language. Braille pegboards for Braille training, photo cards for communicating with pictures or posters with the finger alphabet are examples of training aids.
AAC serves people with motor or cognitive speech disorders who are unable to communicate with others using spoken language, or only to a very limited extent.
- Finger language (also known as finger alphabet) is used by people with deafness and hearing loss to spell a word using their fingers.
- Sign language is a non-phonetic form of communication for people with deafness that accompanies natural speech or replaces it with facial expressions, gestures and body language, such as sign language.
- With lipreading, people with deafness and hearing loss can visually recognize and understand what other people are saying through their lip movements.
- Cued speech supports spoken language with hand signals.
- The Braille code is a writing system with letters made up of tactile dots that people with blindness use.
- When communicating with symbols, simplified images provide information, such as pictograms. Pictures and drawings can also be used to illustrate whole words or sentences.
- Bliss language is used to communicate via a special collection of pictograms that stand for specific terms. Bliss communication is a method of assisted communication (AAC).
- Morse code is used for Morse communication. Morse code is a coded alphabet in which each letter corresponds to a specific sequence of tones or signals.
