CAA communication
Tools for Augmentative and Alternative Communication in the Zero Services of the City of Bologna
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAA) systems are forms of expression other than the spoken language, which aim to increase the possibilities (augmentative) and/or to compensate (alternative) the communication and verbal language difficulties of adults and children.
To give a practical example, in the communication system based on symbols and images, these act as an alternative that accompanies and stimulates communication; the communicative partner reads the image aloud, thus creating an incoming oral stimulus to facilitate, if possible, even outgoing verbal production.
The CAA includes different symbol systems, both graphic (images, drawings, pictograms, words or letters) and gestural (mimics, gestures or manual signs) and, in the first case, it also requires the use of support products.
An example are the kits that we have prepared for the Zero Services of the City of Bologna, created with the aim of making spaces, times, materials and relationships more intelligible.
Contents of the first kit
- Sequence of the day
- Go to the bathroom
- Wash your hands
- Food from the canteen
- Activity tools
- Memory of the farm animals
- Memory of fruit
Contents of the second kit
- Emotions
- Apparel
- Kitchen
- Commands
- Psychomotricity
- Meteo
- Centers of interest
- Outdoor Education
The pictographic symbols used are the property of the Government of Aragon and were created by Sergio Palao for ARASAAC| Aragonese Center for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, a portal that offers graphic resources and materials adapted under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License.
