“In 2003, Light expanded the preliminary model of communicative competence and argued that the attainment of communicative competence by individuals with complex communication needs is impacted by not just their linguistic, operational, social, and strategic competence but also a range of psychosocial factors including motivation, attitude, confidence, and resilience.”
Psychosocial and environmental factors shape a person's communicative competence. Psychosocial factors are inside the person. Environmental factors are outside the person.
skills contributing to communicative competence
Psychosocial Supports and Barriers
Psychosocial competence is the ability to:
manage the demands and challenges of daily life
maintain a state of mental well-being
and show adaptive and positive behavior during communication
(WHO, 1997; retrieved from ASHA AAC Practice Portal 8/1/21)
According to Light (2003), psychosocial factors include:
motivation: the desire to communicate and belief that it is important and doable
AAC is complex and involves significant
motor
cognitive
sensory perceptual
linguistic demands
A person is more likely to take on these demands to communicate when they are highly motivated to do so. If their motivation is low (or not high enough), these demands may be too overwhelming. This leads to the person choosing to not communicate.
Bruce Baker (2005) talked about this with his “motivation formula”:
When the desire to communicate is bigger than the effort and time to do it, communication will happen. But if the effort or time is more than the desire to communicate, communication will not happen.
To build motivation, people who use AAC may need
a lot of positive communication experiences and
a lot of successful communication experiences
attitude: ideas about the use of AAC that influence AAC use (or lack of use) in a given situation
AAC use (or lack of use) may change based on:
the attitude of the AAC user toward AAC
the attitude of the people around the AAC user toward AAC
confidence: believing in your ability to successfully communicate in a given situation
Seeing or interacting with other people who use AAC may be important to build the person's confidence.
resilience: the ability to get through challenges, fix problems, and recover from failures
Protective factors that support resilience include:
problem-solving skills
self-esteem
optimism
faith
encouragement and support from family, mentors, teachers, employers, peers, or other communication partners
These supports help the person deal with hard times and failures.
Environmental Supports and Barriers
Communication does not happen in a bubble by ourselves. Environmental and partner factors impact a person's communicative competence. Barriers in the environment may get in the way of communicative competence. Supports in the environment may improve communicative competence. Environmental factors include (Light & McNaughton, 2014):
policy and practice barriers and supports
legislation about accessibility and inclusion
policies impacting funding for AAC systems and other assistive technologies
legislation about discrimination against individuals with disabilities
policies about universal design of technologies
evidence-based, client responsive, culturally competent services
provider expertise in AAC
funding support
availability of appropriate technologies
attitude barriers and supports
advocacy, public education, promoting awareness of rights and abilities of individuals with disabilities
meaningful opportunities to communicate and interact with peers
appropriate expectations
knowledge and skill barriers and supports
knowledge of:
funding sources and AAC resources
AAC symbols and transmission techniques
positioning requirements
strategies for vocabulary selection, layout, organization, and keeping it updated
daily care and maintenance
strategies for
technical trouble shooting
integrating AAC into daily life
partners who use interaction strategies to support successful communication
All people who use AAC will run into environmental factors. The effect these factors have depends on:
the strength of the person's linguistic, operational, social, and strategic skills
how developed their psychosocial factors are
References:
Janice Light & David McNaughton (2014) Communicative Competence for Individuals who require Augmentative and Alternative Communication: A New Definition for a New Era of Communication?, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 30:1, 1-18, DOI: 10.3109/07434618.2014.885080
Jennifer J. Thistle & Krista M. Wilkinson (2013) Working Memory Demands of Aided Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 29:3, 235-245, DOI: 10.3109/07434618.2013.815800
Light, J. (2003). Shattering the silence: Development of communicative competence by individuals who use AAC. In J.C. Light, D.R. Beukelman, & J. Reichle (Eds.), Communicative competence for individuals who use AAC: From research to effective practice (pp. 3–38). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
WHO (1997). World Health Organization. Life Skills Education for Children and Adolescents in Schools. Programme on Mental Health Organization, Geneva : WHO.
Related posts:
Communicative Competence - for an introduction overview of Communicative Competence, check out this post
Communicative Competence: Operational - for a closer look at the area of operational competence, check out this post
Communicative Competence: Strategic - for a closer look at the area of strategic competence, check out this post
Communicative Competence: Self-Advocacy - for a closer look at the area of self-advocacy competence, check out this post
Communicative Competence: Linguistic - for a closer look at the area of linguistic competence, check out this post
Communicative Competence: Social - for a closer look at the area of social competence, check out this post
Communicative Competence: Emotional - for a closer look at the area of emotional competence, check out this post
Wrap-up post of our exploration of communicative competence in AAC
