Accessibility
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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.

301 topics, showing 251–260 (page 26 of 31).

S

Speech sound disorder

Also called SSD, Articulation disorder, Phonological disorder, Speech delay

A child whose sounds are still wrong past the age they should be: the difference between a mouth that can't make the sound and a brain that's filed it in the wrong place.

Speech, language and communication needs

Also called SLCN, Communication and interaction needs

SLCN is the umbrella schools and services put over every kind of communication difficulty; useful for funding, useless for knowing what to do until you look underneath.

Speech-generating device

Also called SGD, VOCA, Voice output communication aid, Talker, Communication device

Any device that says the words out loud. Called an SGD, a VOCA, a talker or a communication aid, and the person's voice in every case.

Stammering

Also called Stuttering, Dysfluency, Stutter

Repetitions, prolongations and blocks: what a stammer is, what listeners get wrong, and what genuinely helps at each age.

Static display

Also called Fixed display, Static board, Fixed-layout device

A page that never changes, so every word has a permanent home and can be found by hand rather than by search.

Stroke and communication

Also called Post-stroke communication, Stroke and speech

A third of strokes affect communication, in three different ways; telling them apart shapes everything, and the recovery window is longer than most people are told.

Supported decision-making

Also called SDM, Supported decision making, Decision support

The practical work of helping a person make their own decision: the right information, in the right form, at the right time, with the right person.

Switch access

Also called Switch control, Single-switch access, Switch use

Operating a whole device with one or two buttons, placed wherever the body is most reliable. Slower than touch, but it needs so much less.

Switch mounting

Also called Switch positioning, Mounting arm, Switch mount

Holding a switch exactly where the body expects it, on a wheelchair, a bed or a table, every single time. A switch that moves is a switch that fails.

Switch scanning

Also called Scanning, Indirect selection, Scan access

The device lights up each choice in turn and the person presses when the highlight reaches the right one. One button, any vocabulary.

Need the board, not the word?

Fiducia Talk is a complete AAC talking board, free forever with no account. Fiducia Life puts the same board inside a life, with the family on the same record.

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