1. Communication charts or books – this is an effective communication aid for people who are non-speaker and can often be achieved by indicating with their finger or their eyes to words, photos and symbols that are contained in the communication books, charts and boards. These can include PECS.
2. Words and symbols – It’s not crucial for a user to be capable of reading text to use any communication aids. Various aids have symbols which can communicate a full collection of spoken vocabulary.
3. Communication aids that speak – These aids use two types of 'voice', this is an artificial or a pre-recorded. these speak letters, words or phrases which the user has chosen. the artificial voice is a computer generated speech. Almost all speaking communication aids are play back pre-recorded speech. They contain single words or phrases that are recorded by a human that speaks into a microphone.
4. Human aids – these are interpreters, translators for people who speak different languages. This is when an advocate helps an individual to understand what has been said and to make their own decisions that are in their best interest.
5. Sign Language – this is very helpful for deaf people. Makaton is a language programme that uses signs and symbols which helps people to communicate. It is also designed to support spoken language where signs and symbols that are used in speech, in spoken word order.
6. Touch- this is a very powerful method of communication. Gently touching an individual’s hand can express your concern and friendliness for them, any kind of touch has to be appropriate, and also to remember the importance of cultural issues around touching. It’s also important get consent from the individual before you to touch them. You could ask the individual to touch you once for yes and twice for no as an example.
7. Braille – This method is a system that is largely used by blind people to read and write.
The potential effects on an individual of having unmet communication needs can include the fact that they feel isolated, depressed, etc. They may also develop mental health disabilities if they feel that they are not 'included' in society due to these unmet needs.
An individual with unmet communication needs may feel isolated as if no one is listening to them or understands them. This may then result in them getting very frustrated and angry, they may also begin to get depressed and withdraw from usual daily activities. They may also suffer from physical and emotional problems and may isolate themselves.
I would try and access support information if i was struggling to communicate with an individual and had concerns that there were other issues. I would firstly discuss with senior members of staff, other carers involved including family and of course my manager.
I would actively support the individuals to:
• express their requests about how they wish to communicate, and the ways in they would like to communicate.
• I would try and identify any barriers and how to overcome these when communicating with others.
• I would try to develop and use different communication methods or skills that will support them to be understood by others.
Below is a list of communication aids.
Talking photo albums. These can have various minutes of recording time for every single message and it is a really useful product that will help the individual to stay independent. The albums will have a variety of uses for people that are visually impaired, or have Alzheimer's or Dementia. They can also be beneficial for the use of activities for children or adults with special needs. We can also store and access, emergency contacts for people, we can use them to remember important information, or to stimulate memories, to medication management, store photographs of family, friends, holidays or special events, can use it for organizing appointments, or to create audio/visual procedures and can manage diary event schedules.
Light writers this is a text-to-speech device. This is when the person that cannot speak so the individual would type a message on the keyboard, and then that message is displayed on two displays, one which will be facing the user and the second one outfacing display for the other person to see what is said. There also is a speech synthesiser that will be used for providing a speech output. people that are incompetent to use a keyboard there are some models of Lightwriter that will offer an option of on-screen keyboard with selection that is made by a switch that uses a scanning technique.
Go Talk. This is when sentences for instance "I would like", "thank you very much" will be stored as a picture or phrase and would be pressed to speak the sentence. It can hold up to 32 different pictures or phrases that are stored and different once can be pressed many times to construct a full fluent sentence for example; "I would like fish and chips for tea thank you very much".
Assistive devices can include device that are for disabled children or adults so that they can learn and function more effectively. There are so many assistive technologies that have been invented for people who have hearing, visual disabilities. These devices can include anything from wheelchairs to a wide collection of high-tech tools, including the following:
• hearing aids and amplification devices that support hearing-impaired people to hear what's going on around them in restaurants, shops etc.
• glare-reduction screens, screen magnifiers, and Braille note-taking devices that aid visually impaired people to join in more fully with activities or discussions etc.
• voice-recognition software is when spoken word are typed on a computer screen for people that are unable to move their limbs so that they can also take part in everyday life.
• There are technologies that aid severely disabled people to control their own computers by following the letters and commands on a computer screen with their eyes.
There are many companies today which are turning their research and development into assistive technologies. Many programs and devices that are developed today are intended to work on individuals own personal computers in a Microsoft Windows environment.
It is very important that all staff and the user are fully trained to use any of the products to guarantee good communication to be produced between each other.
I would support the individual to improve their communication methods that can help them to understand others and be understood by other people in the community.
I would try and provide opportunities for the individual to try and communicate with others by providing all the necessary equipment. I take the individual out into the community so that the individual can communicate for themselves with other people, for example, whilst shopping I will make the individual pay for her own shopping by making the individual hand over the money. I would support and encourage the individual to pack their own shopping.
I would support others people to understand how the individual communicates by using the agreed methods and advising them on the specific communication methods that the individual may use.
For example, with my service user SK she doesn’t use speech to communicate, so when we take her out into the community, there are some people who are understanding and realise that she has a disability when she doesn’t reply by using speech to their questions, and she replies by her facial expression.