Communication Adventures Status

CommunicationAdventures is a treasure house of resources for communication strategies, through Aided Language Input, presented in the form of tips, motivations and practical conversation ideas for communication and language development. “You have a fabulous list of tips.  The ideas presented in CommunicationAdventures can be applied, regardless of the type of the alternative communication system being used with the child.  CommunicationAdventures has been designed with the vision of empowering the communication partners, with the skills required for effective communication with the child, under various settings.  Communication Adventure comes to you from Avaz Inc, the makers of Avaz, the AAC(Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app that has received a number of international awards, including being on MIT’s list of Top 35 Innovations in 2011.  The overall messages are great; I like how you encourage language expansion in simple, discrete ways; encourage parents to provide choices and use yes/no questions; and discourage imposition of adult choices in interaction, thus providing greater access to child "voice".  For each activity, you are presented with typical conversation scenarios and are asked simple questions; you are required to choose the most appropriate response from the given options; and for response, there is an associated tip / learning.  Communication Adventures is specially developed for training communication partners (parents, teachers, caregivers and even speech therapists) of children who are non-verbal or who have difficulty speaking.  The tips and strategies suggested here may not apply to all children; they need to be adapted and tailored, based on each child's individual responses and differences.  Once you complete a game/activity successfully, you collect tips for it, which includes conversation ideas and strategies to help your child communicate.  You will be learning the communication strategies through a simulated character - Johnny.  Learning communication strategies can’t get simpler and more fun!  He has complex communication needs and has recently been introduced to alternative communication.  You are required to complete the activity game within a time limit of 3 minutes AND with 3 or less incorrect responses, to be able to unlock the next activity.  Johnny, the hero of CommunicationAdventures , is a cute 7-year old boy, who loves apple pies and Barney!  You are presented with several activities of Johnny’s daily life e. g. mealtime, TV time, shared reading etc.  Learn how to communicate with children who have speech difficulties!