Communication

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others."- Anthony Robbins


In today's session we learned about communication and discussed the various modes of communication. Because I have never had any personal struggles with communication I don't think I have ever fully appreciated just how complicated a process it can be. This process becomes even more complicated when working or interacting with individuals who are non-verbal. What I am really starting to appreciate from this course is just how important it is to think about communication from a number of different perspectives.

Firstly, in order for successful communication to occur there are three essential components: joint attention of all persons involved in the communication, a partner to communicate with and an understanding or common language between the people who are communicating.

There are a limitless number of ways for communication to occur and many factorts to consider when finding the most efficient and successful mode of communication. Here is a list of some of the modes of communication that I learned about today: speaking, body language, graphic symbols, icons, photographs, videos, selection sets, text, pictures, images and sign language.

When deciding on the best mode of communication for an individual who is non-verbal there are a lot of considerations that must be taken into account. Here is an example of just a few of the questions to consider before deciding on a mode of communication. What is the intent of the message? How long is the duration of the interaction? What is the rate of communication? How familiar is the partner with the person communicating? As one can appreciate there is a lot that needs to be considered before deciding on the best mode of communication for an individual. But what I am really excited about is the ability of assistive technology to change a person's life and the way they communicate. Please take a moment to look at the links I have attached and see what Karen Erickson has done in two case studies working with Jake and Matthew and watch a video that illustrates what a remarkable achievement these students have made.