Children’s representations of early language concepts

Drager, K. & Light, J. (2011, July). Children’s representations of early language concepts: Implications for designing symbols. Presentation at 8th Eastern and Central European Regional Augmentative and Alternative Communication Conference, Warsaw, Poland.

In this session, we presented the results of a research study that investigated typically developing young children’s graphic representations of early emerging language concepts. The children were from five different cultural/ethnic groups.  Results of this study suggest that current AAC symbols for many early emerging language concepts do not reflect the conceptualizations of typically developing children (ages 3-6 years).  We discussed the implications for AAC symbols that better meet the developmental needs of young children with complex communication needs.
This presentation was part of the AAC Global Initiative