This is fine when distinguishing between a few states but ineffective for distinguishing all 50. Graphic symbols for these kinds of nouns rely on outlines of the shape of the state or the country’s flag. It is not efficient to create a button with a symbol for every state or country. A closed set has a finite number, such as every American state or African country. Users access these synonyms by first selecting the essential concept word. Proloquo includes these words as text-only Related Words. But trying to symbolize the difference between terrible vs. Using synonyms of bad such as terrible, awful, inferior, and offensive are the mark of a fluent English speaker. Excellent and terrible are used much less often, but they make our language sparkle. Good and bad are general high-frequency words and can be used in any context to describe everything from food to traffic to politics. We add nuance to these words with synonyms, like excellent or terrible. The English language has essential concepts, like good and bad. This preserves space in the grid for words that carry meaning, which are the most essential to beginning AAC users.
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We included these words as half-height, text-only buttons. Many of these words are taught as sight words. These words emerge later in language development. These function words include articles ( a, the) and conjunctions ( and, but, so). Their role is to help connect words in a grammatically correct sentence. Some words are used frequently by many people, but they do not carry meaning. There are 4 reasons a button might not be symbolized. Proloquo includes over 9,000 text-only buttons in the base vocabulary. They become less helpful when a concept is difficult to picture or symbols are hard to distinguish. Graphic symbols are valuable, but they have their limits. We relied on vocabulary research and national school curriculums to identify these words. Important concept words include respect, privacy, or responsibility. These words are essential to participate in the school curriculum or broader community, even if they aren’t used in daily conversation by most people. Some words express an important idea, but are not used frequently. We also used research on the word frequency of English speakers in general.
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We used anonymous data from tens of thousands of AAC users, including beginners to the most advanced. We emphasized content words (the words that carry the meaning in a sentence) such as nouns, verbs, and descriptors. We symbolized words used most often by most people. We relied on multiple fields of research to identify these words, including a wide variety of word lists generated from language samples of young children, children acquiring English as a second language, and children with a range of disabilities. Our intent was to symbolize the common words that children learn before they become literate. Words that emerge early in language development have been symbolized in Proloquo. There are three reasons why a button might have a symbol. Proloquo’s Crescendo Evolution™ vocabulary comes pre-programmed with about 3,200 buttons with graphic symbols. Symbols let them rely on symbol recognition instead of generating words. Some AAC users who can spell fluently say that graphic symbols reduce the cognitive load of communication when under stress. Many people who are literate find that graphic symbols are fast and efficient. People who cannot yet read can learn to recognize the symbol and communicate the word. Graphic symbols are an essential support for many AAC users. (Updated with new figures on May 3, 2022) Buttons with symbols