Speech and Language Therapy

Speech therapy is the corrective or rehabilitative treatment of physical and/or cognitive deficits/disorders resulting in difficulty with verbal communication. This includes both speech (articulation, intonation, rate, intensity) and language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, both receptive and expressive language, including reading and writing). Depending on the nature and severity of the disorder, common treatments may range from physical strengthening exercises, instructive or repetitive practice and drilling, to the use of audio-visual aids.

Speech and language therapists (SLTs) or speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide a wide range of services for all ages, in early intervention (ages 0-3 years old), preschool, primary and secondary schooling, home care, and hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and nursing homes. Professionals often work with stroke victims, individuals with autism spectrum disorders or speech disorders (e.g. lisps, stammers), and with the deaf and hearing impaired. SLPs also provide services for individuals with dysphagia (difficulty swallowing).

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is the formal term for "non-speech communication". In fact, the difference between augmentative and alternative communication is merely the difference between partial and total dependency on non-speech communication.

Speech may be replaced or augmented by:

• gesture and body language;
• manual sign;
• handwriting;
• communication aids.

Communication aids are devices developed or adapted for use by people with severe communication impairments. Because these people have very varied skills, needs, and problems, there is a large range of communication aids.

Some people with severe communication impairments can use their hands; others cannot, and have to use alternatives, such as mouth sticks, headsticks, switches or eye-pointing. Some can read and spell; others cannot, and need communication aids on which language elements are represented by pictures or symbols. Some individuals use wheelchairs which can accommodate large communication devices; others walk and need small, light aids. Some have the funds to purchase high tech equipment; others do not.

A communication aid may be as simple as a piece of cardboard with "no" and "yes" written on it, or as complex as a laptop computer, controlled with a switch which speaks and allows the user to talk on the phone, access the Internet, or type an essay.

The best non-speech communication strategy (or combination of strategies) is the one which allows the person with severe communication impairment to communicate as freely as possible, in as many situations as possible, to the maximum number of people.

Blissymbolics or Blissymbols were conceived of as an ideographic writing system consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts. Blissymbols differ from all the world's major writing systems in that the characters do not directly correspond to the sounds of any spoken language.

They were invented by Charles K. Bliss (1897-1985) after the Second World War. Bliss wanted to create an easy-to-learn international auxiliary language to allow communication between people who do not speak the same language. He was inspired by Chinese ideograms, with which Bliss became familiar with in Shanghai while a refugee from Nazi anti-semitic persecution. His system World Writing was explained in his work Semantography (1949). This work laid out the language structure and vocabulary for his utopian vision of easy communication, but it failed to gain popularity. However, since the 1960s, Blissymbols have become popular as a method of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for non-speaking people with cerebral palsy or other disorders, for whom it can be impossible to otherwise communicate with spoken language.

It should be noted, however, that linguists such as John DeFrancis and J. Marshall Unger have argued that genuine ideographic writing systems, with the same capacities as natural languages, do not exist; this implies a limitation on the claims made about Blissymbolics as a communicative system, whatever their practical uses may be.

Blissymbolics Communication International is an international group of people who act as an authority regarding the standardization of the Blissymbolics language. They have taken responsibility for any extensions of the Blissymbolics language as well as any maintenance needed for the language. BCI has coordinated usage of the language since 1971 for augmentative and alternative communication. BCI received a licence and copyright through legal agreements with Charles K. Bliss in 1975 and 1982. Limiting the count of Bliss-characters (there are currently about 900) is very useful to help the user community. It also helps when implementing Blissymbolics using technology such as computers.