A picture can be worth a thousand words, especially for children who have intellectual or physical impediments to forming words on their own. Thanks to the efforts of UNC Greensboro students, many children will find a helpful tool when having fun with friends on the playground.
As Sidney Cassidy, Brooke Parks, and Mary Grace Smith near the end of UNCG’s speech-language pathology graduate program, they chose a capstone project that removes obstacles for children with complex communication needs at parks in Asheboro, North Carolina.
With the guidance of Dr. Emily Hamuka, associate professor and clinical educator in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD), they designed special boards that are now permanently set in playgrounds at five of the city parks.
Playtime Accessibility
“What started this project was our shared interest in AAC,” says Parks, referring to augmentative and alternative communication, a tool used by people when words are not at their disposal. October is AAC Awareness Month.
Parks works for Asheboro’s Cultural and Recreations Services, and she pitched the idea of putting AAC boards in the playgrounds at the beginning of the year. She says, “I didn’t have to think about how I would be able to communicate when I went to the park as a kid. But there are people with disabilities who have to think about that. These boards should help them.”
AAC can be high-tech, such as electronic tablets, or light-tech such as pencil and paper. It is a valuable aid to people who have intellectual disabilities or physical conditions – including autism, aphasia, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, ALS, and traumatic brain injuries – which can inhibit the ability to speak or express oneself.
“We often think about physical accessibility,” says Hamuka. “For example, playgrounds having ramps or mulch that won’t get stuck in a wheelchair wheel. But a lot of people don’t think about those public spaces having accessible communication.”
Cassidy and Parks are both from Asheboro, and Smith is from Marion, so they recognized the value of expanding access to speech-language pathology tools outside of large urban centers. Cassidy says, “We were interested in reaching beyond Guilford County into a more rural area, an area that may not have the resources that others have.”
“I hope we broke some of the stigma about AAC,” says Smith. “I hope we showed people that it is an acceptable form of communication.”
Pictures for All Ages
Each board is lined with pictures that link to one or two words. They indicate directions like “up” and “down,” actions such as “slide,” requests such as “look,” and other needs such as “hurt” or “help.”
“The majority of these are ‘core words’ which can be used across many situations and contexts,” says Hamuka. “They also have some specific words and symbols related to a playground, which we call ‘fringe vocabulary.’”
The boards in Asheboro are primarily directed at children, but Parks, Cassidy, and Smith designed them to be intuitive for all ages. They studied other AAC boards, talked to speech-language pathologists, and did a survey in Asheboro to decide what words would be most useful to the public.
Smith says, “We also put the boards at a certain height, so that children or individuals in wheelchairs can reach them.”
CSD students at UNCG can study AAC in a semester-long, one-credit course. “When I was in graduate school, I had perhaps one class period where we talked about AAC,” says Hamuka. “Now, our students at UNCG can be supervised by amazing community-based speech-language pathologists who focus on children with complex communication needs. They get amazing hands-on experience.”
Bringing the Public on Board
A key part of their project is education, so they led a staff training day over the summer. “Asheboro Cultural and Recreation Services really helped in this project,” says Parks. “They fully funded the boards. They put them up. We could not have done it without them.”
They also held Community Days to educate the public about the boards and AAC in general. “There were several other speech-language pathologists there, and parents with children that used AAC,” says Cassidy. “And they were saying it would be great to have this in their schools and other places.”
Hamuka was impressed by the work that Cassidy, Parks, and Smith put into this project that will leave a resounding impact for years to come.
“The awesome thing about these capstone projects is how they let graduate students nearing the end of their academic career really take ownership and decide what area or specialty they want to focus on,” she says. “They learn research skills but also how to engage with the community. They’ll get to continue that as they go out into the world as speech-language pathologists.”
“We wanted to give more people a voice,” says Cassidy. “Everyone deserves a voice.”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by David Lee Row, University Communications
