Linguistics, AAC, and metalinguistics in communicatively handicapped adolescents

Abstract

This study had two aims: first, to give an overview of current research on metalinguistic skills and their development and to point to the relevance of this research to the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) field; and second, to demonstrate how methods based on the reasoning in the metalinguistic field can be applied to the communicative situation of a group of Bliss-using persons. Since a characteristic of many AAC users is that they lack productive spoken communication, studies of their metalinguistic skills put special demands on the tests and methodologies used. At the same time, it is evident that the metalinguistic skills of persons with severe communication disorders are highly relevant from both a theoretical and an applied point of view. The perspective outlined in the overview was used in a study of eight Bliss-using subjects who were tested with respect to comprehension of oral language, metalinguistic functions, and reading/writing variables. The results point to the importance of developing the subjects' expressive linguistic abilities, since their metalinguistic abilities indicate such potentials. The study also served as a test of a new methodology for studying language functions among people with severe communication disorders, which in this respect seems promising.