I recently babysat a patient, who uses a PODD book to communicate. He uses the ‘9 Cells Per Page Expanded Functions’ book, which is an early communication layout with limited vocabulary on some topics, suitable for beginner communicators.
It was a chilly day and we were walking outside. He used his book to point to the language pathway ‘More to Say’, then ‘I want (an activity[)’, then ‘toys’ and then chose ‘bubbles’.
I know he often likes to blow bubbles with me, but his brother informed me they didn’t have any, so I suggested another activity. It was only later when chatting to his Mom that I mentioned the conversation and she informed me that he usually has a bubble bath at that time of the day.
I realised that his particular beginner book, doesn’t offer a very broad vocabulary around self-care topics, but he had cleverly used a familiar language pathway to get to the vocabulary he wanted. Unfortunately I wasn’t familiar enough with his routine to understand his excellent generalisation and use of the word ‘bubbles’.
Learning to use one word across many contexts is a huge achievement for many AAC users, and it is precisely how they need to use a symbol-based vocabulary to generate unlimited, new, self-directed sentences.
Learning from this small exchange: unfamiliar communication partners simply will not know all of the context surrounding an utterance which is why it is important that people are taught to be adaptable, specific, and independent in their communication. It may be time to add words and model the use of more self-care words like ‘bath’, or home words like ‘bathroom’ and even time words like ‘now’ for this little chap. The beauty of the PODD system is that if we are finding that he needs more words, we can simply add them to his book, or consider moving him on to a pre-made book which already has a bigger vocabulary.
