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Communication A to Z

AAC, core vocabulary, partner-assisted scanning, a communication passport. Meetings and leaflets are full of words everyone seems to know already. More than three hundred of them explained in plain English: what each one is, who it helps, and what you can do about it this week.

Please note: This page is general information about communication and the ways people are supported to communicate. It is not an assessment, a diagnosis or speech and language therapy, and it does not know the person you have in mind. If you are worried about someone's speech, language or communication, ask a GP, a health visitor or a speech and language therapist. In an emergency, call 999; if you cannot speak, Relay UK on 18000 or the emergencySMS service reach the same operators.

18 topics filed under B, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 2).

B

Babbling

Also called Canonical babbling, Vocal play, Reduplicated babbling

The ba-ba-ba of the second half of the first year: practice for speech, and a reason AAC users need to be allowed to play with their device too.

Baby signing

Also called Baby sign, Infant signing, Baby sign language, Sing and Sign, Tiny Talk

Signing with hearing babies before they can talk, what it honestly does and does not do, and how it relates to sign language proper.

Bathroom vocabulary

Also called Toileting vocabulary, Personal care words, Bathroom set

Toilet, wash, private, help, stop: the words a person must be able to say without embarrassment, and the ones that make intimate care done with them.

Behaviour as communication

Also called Behaviour is communication, Communicative function of behaviour, Challenging behaviour and communication

When a person can't tell you in words, they tell you another way. Reading it as a message, not as a problem, changes what you do next.

Bereavement and communication

Also called Grief and AAC, Breaking bad news to a non-speaking person

Grieving without speech, and being told the news in a way you can take in. Being protected from a death is being excluded from it.

Best interests

Also called Best interests decision, Section 4 MCA, Best interests meeting

When a person cannot make a decision even with support, the law says how it is made for them, and their own voice is still the first thing to be weighed.

Big-key keyboard

Also called Large-key keyboard, Big keys, High-visibility keyboard, Large-print keyboard

Large targets for people whose hands, eyes or tremor need them, on screen or as a physical keyboard the size of a tea tray.

Bilingual children and communication

Also called Bilingualism, Multilingual children, EAL and speech and language, Dual language learners

Two languages never cause a language disorder. Dropping the home language does not help, and AAC can and should carry both.

Blending

Also called Oral blending, Sound blending, Synthesising

Pushing separate sounds together to make a word: c-a-t becomes cat. It is how reading starts, and how a non-speaking person can say a word they have never seen on a board.

Blissymbolics

Also called Bliss, Bliss symbols, Blissymbols, Semantography

A symbol language with its own grammar, built from a few hundred shapes that combine, older than any communication device and still in use.

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