CAITLIN: OK, welcome. Thank you all for joining us today for January's Tech Accelerator webinar. Our presentation this month highlights AAC vocabulary access on the subject of communication, connection, and consent. This session is being recorded, and the video will include picture in picture, ASL translation, as well as a full transcript.
You can access that video on our website at disabilities.temple.edu, and I've put that link in the chat as well. That website is also where you can register for future webinars. So TechOWL has a wonderful series of 18 topics, running from July 2024 to December 2025, and each will be held on the third Thursday of the month, and is being offered at two times-- 12:00 noon and 4:00 PM.
This series is part of the Tech Accelerator project, which includes five major focus areas-- training and resources to build capacity for stakeholders, a readiness evaluation to develop tools for the successful adoption of remote supports and assistive tech, a statewide assessment to plan and benchmark a Technology First systems change, a provider survey to assess technology awareness and resources among providers, and finally, two technology summits, which will be live events hosted in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh this coming March to enhance awareness of tech solutions. And you can learn more about all of these fantastic projects on our website using the link in the chat.
I'd like to introduce now our speaker for the day, Hali Strickler.
HALI STRICKLER: Hi, everyone. Just give me one second while we get our slides switched over and pulled up for you all to see.
So like Caitlin mentioned, our topic today is Communication, Connection, and consent, with a focus on AAC Vocabulary Access for Sexual Health. I'm Hali Strickler. I am one of the speech language pathologists and AAC services coordinator at the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, as well as part of the TechOWL team.
So our learning objectives for today-- this is just some of the bare minimum that I hope that you get out of today's presentation. Hopefully you'll be able to take a lot more with you, but here's our objectives. So develop at least two rationales to support access to sexual health, intimacy, and/or relationship vocabulary for AAC users. Describe three or more examples of sexual health, intimacy, and/or relationship vocabulary to include in AAC systems or devices for each life stage, and then describe at least two implementation strategies for AAC inclusive sex education.
So throughout the presentation as well, I do like to give a disclaimer. You'll notice that there's quite a few disclaimers and content warnings that you will see throughout the slides today. One of the first ones here is that I am speaking from the perspective of a speech language pathologist, and I do consider myself somebody who specializes in AAC. I mostly work with individuals who use AAC, so my practice is very AAC-focused.
That being said as well, I am also not a person with disabilities and I am not an AAC user. So when I'm speaking, I am speaking through the lens of a person who practices in this area of the field, but I'm not a person with lived experience. So it's really good to go and seek out the voices of AAC users, and listen to their experiences, read their works and publications as well, so that you can get a more rounded picture and idea of this topic.
I will have lots of resources, and citations, and references at the end of the slides, and you can find some works by AAC users included there, so the links and titles of articles and things will all be included in the reference slides. So definitely feel free to check those out. I highly encourage you to do so.
I'm also going to use a variety of identity first and person first language, and I do that to accommodate both preferences. So you're going to hear me say things AAC user, person who uses AAC, autistic person, person with autism, disabled person, person with a disability. Again, we do that to accommodate both preferences for that type of language use.
There's also lots of conversation around how we talk about people who use AAC devices or speech-generating devices. There isn't one magic term that describes everyone with the way that feels authentic to themselves, so you might hear me use a variety of different language also to refer to folks who use this type of equipment to enhance their communication.
So probably the main term you're going to hear me use is AAC user, but just keep in mind, though, that there are other terms to describe individuals. And of course, if you're working or you are supporting somebody who uses AAC, I just ask them what term they prefer to use and what feels authentic to themselves.
Other content warnings for today, this presentation, it's kind of in the title, but with this presentation, we are going to be talking and using some explicit language. There's going to be a big focus on sexual health terminology, so you'll see words for reproductive body parts and sexual anatomy written on the screen, as well as images related to those body parts or sexual health and activity as well. We also will be discussing abuse more in a general sense, talking about maybe some of the statistics, how we represent vocabulary to talk about violence and abuse as well.
So just please keep that in mind, that some of this content is a bit sensitive. So if you do need to excuse yourself or minimize the screen at any time, please feel free to do so. Again, we will be looking at images later of how these types of concepts and vocabulary are symbolized and represented on various AAC systems, so this is going to include images. Additional disclaimer-- the images with violence and abuse, I will say, are not explicitly graphic in any way for most people's preferences or viewpoint, but they do include some imagery that does symbolize violence and abuse, so just be aware of yourself and your boundaries.
So just a brief introduction to AAC. I'm going to fly through this because I'm going to assume that most people are here because they know a little bit about AAC and are ready to hear more about this specific topic and how we can look at AAC for sexual health, relationships, intimacy, those types of things.
So our acronyms-- AAC is going to stand for augmentative and alternative communication, AT-- assistive technology, DD or ID is going to refer to our developmental disabilities or intellectual disability, SGD-- speech-generating device, and then an SLP, like myself, that's a speech language pathologist or a speech therapist.
So assistive technology, just to give us the brief definition, any item, piece of equipment, or product system that's used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capacities of individuals with disabilities. So think of it as any tool that somebody uses to complete or participate in a task or activity that they want to do.
So here on the slide is a variety of different images of people using different types of assistive technology. So we have some for communication on here, we have power chairs, a white cane for someone who's blind or with low vision, adaptive equipment for daily life activities, as well as someone participating in art, using a paintbrush attached to a head stick pointer. So there's lots of different types of AT. This is not an exhaustive list of images by any means, but just to give you an idea of some different solutions that folks might use.
And then AAC-- AAC tends to be an umbrella term for any method of communication that's beyond oral, or what we think of as oral speaking or talking. So that can include gestures, facial expressions, writing, drawing, using symbols, using a speech-generating device. We all use forms of AAC throughout our day, some of us just use AAC a little bit more than others.
So when I'm talking about AAC or an AAC device for the purposes of this presentation, if the focus is mostly going to be on high tech speech-generating devices, iPads with communication apps, or even light text, so print outs, communication boards, picture cards, things like that. So we're going to be really focusing on AAC that's symbolized through picture symbols, or pre-stored messages, things like that.
So just some additional examples to give us an idea of what some of these devices and systems can look like. We have some light tech or low tech device options. These are often paper-based, books, sometimes you might see individual picture cards with Velcro, or you might have print outs that are just screenshots of a high tech system. So there's lots of different variation within our light or low tech systems.
Then the other two images on the upper right, we have a Big Mac button, so that's the one with the red button. These and the other devices that go talk, these are both devices where you record someone else's speech, and then when you press the button or activate the button, it then plays that message.
And then the bottom row includes some high tech speech-generating devices. So one is an iPad and the other two are more specialized AAC systems, including a Tobii Dynavox eye gaze device. That means that somebody can control the computer and use their eyes to activate the system.
You will have noticed that I used high, mid, and lower light to describe these devices. Even though we might use a hierarchy-type language to talk about them, that doesn't mean that somebody has to move through that hierarchy and start with a lower light tech system before moving on to a mid or high tech. Whatever device works the best for the individual is the best tech, even if it is considered a lower light tech system. Just because we call it a high tech device doesn't mean it's inherently better than a mid or a low tech device as a solution for an individual.
So jumping into the content today. And before I do continue on, if anybody has any questions, or comments, or thoughts, please feel free to type those into the chat. I will do my best to keep an eye on the chat as we go along, but feel free to interrupt, ask those questions, and so we can have a discussion as well.
So we're going to look at some of the research related to this topic. So to start, we're going to look at the state of sex education for youth with disabilities. And to be transparent, it's not great. We know that the state of sex education in general for all students with or without disabilities is not the best, and it varies depending on what part of the country you live in and how sex education is politicized in your area.
When we look at some of these statistics that they do that are published, we do find that students who receive special education, students with disabilities receive even less quality sex education in the schools than their peers without disabilities. So students with developmental and intellectual disability are often left out of the conversation, and the content that they do receive is often limited, it's censored, it's not necessarily the same that their peers without disabilities or who do not receive special education are receiving.
One example-- I can speak from my high school. When I was in grad school or maybe in undergrad, I don't remember exactly, but I had to get hours shadowing an SLP, and I went back to my high school, and was able to shadow the SLP there. And I remember that we went to the life skills class the one day, and the students happened to be getting sex education that day. And I will never forget the exact wordage one of the students read from a worksheet that said, "Sex is when sperm and egg collide."
And I thought to myself, that doesn't sound right. And then I saw the worksheet, and it had a cute little picture of a little circle with a face to represent the egg, and it had a cute little picture of a sperm with a smiley face to represent that, and then that was the end of the discussion. And I'd say that is not a proper sex education. I can't say from my high school experience myself that the general education curriculum at the time was that much better, but that was not ideal for those students in the life skills classroom.
And we look at the research and taking more stories and examples from more students, content is really going to often be censored or super vague. It's going to also not be the most accessible for a lot of our students in special education. The materials may not be the most interactive for them to be able to participate, and the information is not being presented in a way that's accessible to them overall.
Also, we're going to see, too, that adult competencies in sex education or about sexual health, and then also their willingness to implement this type of education or talk about these topics, also influences the type of education and information that children and students are receiving. And then, without proper sex education, without the opportunity to learn about your bodies and your health, you are then unfortunately going to be more at risk for abuse and violence in a sexual nature as well, and we do see that in the statistics.
So these stats are quite outdated, and unfortunately, more recent stats are limited, and they're also not better. So people with severe physical and speech disabilities are more likely to experience abuse than non-disabled peers. Looking at studies as well that interview AAC users, we find that a big majority of individuals who've participated in these studies and in these interviews have experienced crime, but very few have reported then to the police.
We also look at other interviews and research, where adults who use AAC devices don't have or report not having a way to be able to talk about healthy sexuality or related topics within their vocabulary systems. Now, this statistic is from a 2006 study or it's 2006 publication, and we are starting to see that right out of the box some AAC systems and devices language systems are starting to have more vocabulary pre-programmed on there. So we've made some great strides as an AAC community in the last couple of years, but we still have a long way to go. So we're going to look some more at specific application of this information to AAC and AAC practice.
So why is this important for our AAC users? And that's because AAC users will often have limited or no access to the words or vocabulary to talk about taboo topics, and that includes topics like sexual health, sexuality, intimacy, all those types of things. Even access to profanity is often excluded on a lot of AAC devices. When you just download the app, turn it on, you have to be able to go in, in a lot of cases, and either type out the word you're looking for or have somebody type it out and program that in for you if you don't have the literacy skills to program your device yourself.
And so that can be a big factor that limits somebody's vocabulary, and it doesn't always have to be intentional. Sometimes parents or teachers don't think that, oh, you need x, y, and z vocabulary on your device, until we realize that it's not there. But sometimes, too, people do remove words from devices because they think it's inappropriate, or this person doesn't need to be able to say that, and sometimes that is due to the infantilization of individuals with disabilities. So there's lots of factors that can go into this, but it's super important and I can't stress it enough that we advocate for AAC users, advocate for age-appropriate vocabulary throughout the lifespan.
So current barriers that are reported and observed. Like I mentioned, there's limitations in the systems. We are getting better, but we still have a long way to go. And I had already said that, if you are an individual who uses a device and you require somebody else or you need assistance to program that device, your device might be censored. So the language that you have access to might not be the exact language that you want to say to be able to be your true and authentic self using your device.
And so there's a lot of things that go into that censorship. I talked about the infantilization of people with disabilities. I talked about just the not being aware, not noticing that that vocabulary isn't on the device until it's a little too late and we needed it to be able to talk about. But then there's also just the not updating the vocabulary throughout a person's lifespan. So
The vocabulary that a young child is going to have to talk about body parts, and bodily functions, and things like that, and relationships, is going to look a lot different than for a 40-year-old adult who is in a consensual sexual relationship. The vocabulary is going to look completely different, and we want to make sure that you're updating the vocabulary throughout somebody's life. So that being said, teenagers, younger adolescents, preteens, they need to have that vocabulary to talk about puberty and those types of changes with their bodies. And then you still will want that vocabulary to talk about later in life as well. So as you age, your needs are going to change, and you want to make sure that vocabulary is constantly updated to reflect those changes in your life.
And of course, that's not just limited to sexual health. That includes all kinds of topics, but sexual health is our focus for today. And then there's limitations in how we teach and support individuals using AAC, especially emergent communicators with these topics. A lot of times these topics, again, are very censored or we tiptoe around these ideas, these conversations. And so then when we do need a person to be able to talk about these things or access vocabulary for their body, this might be a newer topic or a newer concept. And we want to make sure, if we're starting when children are younger and we're building it up throughout their whole life, where we will have better outcomes.
So we're going to look at some vocabulary selection. So on this slide is some broken down examples of different parts of a person's life, so young children all the way up to adults, and looking at some of the vocabulary that might be relevant for individuals within that age group. This is just suggestions. There's no magic answer for really any of these questions or what words. When we give them to a person, it's going to look different for everybody and everybody's life experience, but this is just a list compiled from multiple studies, research on the topics of profanity, taboos, and sexual health concept knowledge.
But keep in mind, too, that personal choice-- I always say word choice is a personal choice, and there's also going to be other factors, like your family values and preferences, your cultural and community values, too. Those are going to influence when you might introduce and talk about certain concepts and words. And this is an extremely sensitive topic. There's going to be no magic one size fits all solution for everyone, but these are ideas to get you started in this conversation with advocating for why this is important.
The big idea or the big takeaway from today is to hopefully change the mindset around talking about this type of topic, especially in the space of disability and AAC. Talking about sex isn't dirty, it's not bad. So by talking about it as a part of normal human life and human experience, we can help have better outcomes for individuals down the road, hopefully. That's the idea.
So when we look at younger children, we want to include names for body parts and use that proper body part vocabulary. When we use cutesy words for body parts, that influences if a child is maybe reporting an instance or saying that something happened to them. I don't know if this story is true. I just heard it in the teacher's school-based sphere of an example of somebody saying that an uncle kissed their cookie. And, well, what does that mean? Does it mean that it a bite of somebody's actual cookie, or is this referring to an instance that this child's referring to their vulva as a cookie, using a cutesy name for it? So that can create misinterpretations, but can also then limit the instance of a child getting the support, being removed from an unsafe environment if they're not able to use proper names for body parts. It can delay in them getting the supports that they need.
But then, too, bodily functions are important to talk about. Kids love to talk about farts and poop. Those are great ways to get somebody to want to use their AAC device. It's funny. There's a video on YouTube of siblings talking at the table, and a sibling is using AAC, and he's talking about diarrhea at the dinner table. Mom redirects, says it's not appropriate, but it gets a good laugh from all the siblings. And that that person using the AAC device, or that child, he was able to then joke around with his brother and sister in the way and using the words that they were doing. So that's really important for social inclusion.
And then we can teach words for boundaries and consent early on with young children. So things like stop, and no, and no in regards to a hug, or no touch, those can be great ways to start teaching those concepts that promote autonomy and boundaries. It's super important. So then as children age, we want to expand on the previous vocabulary, but then we also maybe want to start adding more body part vocabulary.
Maybe this is when we can introduce some of those slang concepts, especially if students, when they're with their peers, their friends, they use different words. So that's where other types of words and slang can fit. It helps students fit in and relate to their peers. Also our relationships change when we're in elementary school and we start to enter middle school, things like that. We need new words to be able to talk about our new types of relationships we're having.
And then vocabulary related to puberty and hygiene is super important. As we enter middle school, you're going to change that slang, but it's always updating. But it's important for kids to be able to use the same words that their peers are using. And we want to start encouraging use of proper terms for sexual health because usually in middle school, that's when kids start to get that sex education, so they need to be able to participate in the classroom.
And then continued expansion of looking at how vocabulary changes for puberty and updated hygiene needs as you're getting older. And as children become teens, they're in high school, and then becoming college age, or adults, sexual health and intimacy, those types of relationships enter a person's life. And so vocabulary needs are going to change then to be able to talk about personal preferences, to talk about their sexual needs, or just health in general.
So when we look at content areas for vocabulary, the next couple of slides are going to take these content areas that are derived from the National Sex Education Standards for core content and skills, but then give you ideas of what types of words or what questions can we ask ourselves? Does the person have the words or vocabulary to talk about these areas on their device? So we're looking at consent in healthy relationships, anatomy and physiology, puberty and adolescent sexual development, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation and identity, sexual health from a more medical lens, and then interpersonal violence.
So the next couple slides, you will start to see some of those images that symbol representation of these types of vocabularies. So just be aware if you need to minimize that screen, there will be images of genitalia on some of the slides to show how that vocabulary is represented.
So when we're looking at consent in healthy relationships, here on the slide is an example from TouchChat, the My Core SS vocabulary set. And you'll see that there's phrase and text-based vocabulary here on the screen, so some pre-programmed messages. So vocabulary for talking about those relationships, whether that's family, peers, friends, coworkers, partners, those are all important things to be able to have.
You want to be able to talk about personal boundaries, the things that you like, the things that you don't like, and then your sexual agency, your preferences, things like that. And of course, the idea of consent in healthy relationships isn't just exclusive to romantic relationships or sexual relationships. This is for all relationships that a person has throughout their life. But of course, people need to also be able to talk about their bodily autonomy, being able to consent not just in sexual situations, but just in general. Like, no, I don't want to do that. Being able to have a way to advocate for yourself and your preferences, your needs, your wants, those are important things to include on a device.
So when you look here with this example, you have things like, it gets easier, I'm OK with you if, I'm uncomfortable, I can't do that, go slower, don't do that, no way I want it. So those are all kinds of different ways that you can represent or say the things that you want to say.
Anatomy and physiology. The example here on this slide is from a Lingraphica device. But having the vocabulary to be able to talk about body parts. So including the reproductive system, as well as external body parts, internal body parts, and then bodily functions is super important as well. So being able to include that vocabulary as detailed as a person needs, as well as using age-appropriate representations for individuals.
So going along with that age-appropriate idea for puberty and adolescent sexual development, people need the vocabulary to be able to talk about their bodies changing, being able to talk about those emotions that are changing. When you're a teenager or a preteen, their emotions are high. There's a lot going on, so you need to be able to express these new feelings, whether they're emotional, they're physical. Being able to have words related to menstruation, that's important too. So you'll see here there's a pre-programmed page set from the VocoChart vocabulary sets with the app Grid for iPad.
And then being able to talk about hygiene and personal care. These change as a person might age. For folks with complex bodies, they might need assistance from other people to have their hygiene routines completed. And having vocabulary to be able to talk about those routines that are happening, or for communication partners to model what's about to happen in the hygiene routine. Is also really important, so then it's not just happening to the person. That they're able to maybe see it visualized, hear it said to them using their system, so they're not just having somebody else invasive in private areas, do it during private moments. These are ways to really help teach people to be able to differentiate between safe hygiene routines being completed and then instances of abuse as well.
So then, of course, gender identity and expression. Everyone is different. We all have different ways that we want to be able to talk about our identity, and so it's good to have that vocabulary included on a system for an individual. So here on the slide is an example from Grid. You'll notice that a lot of the screenshots that I have are from the Grid app, and so this is from the Super Core 50 vocabulary set.
So this isn't, of course, an exhaustive list here of identities that somebody might have or want to talk about, but this is a start with a pre-downloaded system. But of course, adding that vocabulary for a person to talk about their authentic self is important, and also to be able to talk about safety and to advocate for equity.
Same idea as well, with sexual orientation and identity. So a person needs to have the vocabulary to talk about their sexual orientation to, again, advocate for their self, safety, and their equity. And here's an example of TD Snap. Again, not the most inclusive default list here, but it's a start. We're starting to see more vocabulary and more symbols come pre-loaded onto AAC devices.
There's also some great resources with more inclusive gender and sexual identity page sets that AAC users themselves have created and shared for the community to be able to access. There is one, I think, if you go on CoughDrop, like CoughDrop website, you can search for pride, and there's a really good page set that includes all kinds of different pride flags and identities there. That's a great place to get started for some different vocabulary to create a new list or a new page set.
And then sexual health. Another screenshot from Grid. This one's a vocabulary for life page set. What you'll see here is that the vocabulary is a little more medical in nature. So having vocabulary to talk about STDs, STIs, also prevention, and symptoms, and treatment. Being able to talk about all those things that might be happening to your body, so you can have that conversation with a doctor or other type of medical professional.
And then also being able to talk about pregnancy, how it happens, prevention, the options that a person might have. That's important too, to be able to talk about as well. Vocabulary or having pre-stored messages to participate in your health care appointments, and also advocate for your own preferences, your decision making. Those are all important things to include. And then any other medical concerns that a person might have, you want to include on their device. Maybe that includes information about your medical history or your concerns. So it's really important to be able to express all of those types of things.
There's one story from one of the research articles, where a man noticed on the news they were talking about HIV transmission. I think through blood transfusions or something like that, and he was concerned because he had had blood transfusions throughout his life and wanted to know if this was something he needed to be able to talk about with his doctor. He wanted to ask those questions, but when he went to his health care page in his AAC system, he realized he didn't have any way to express that or talk about that. And he did not have the literacy skills at the time to be able to use the keyboard feature within his system to then express that.
So he's an adult man. He needs to be able to ask the questions about his body, his healthcare history, and get those answers, but he wasn't able to. And so in those situations, what does a person do if they don't have the keyboarding or the literacy ability to type out those things that they want to say, but there isn't a symbol already added on their device? And I don't have the answer. Sometimes it might be that they have to wait for somebody to bring it up to them, and that's not a great way to get health care. You need to be able to advocate for yourself and get the health care that you need when you need it.
And then also being able to talk about interpersonal violence. So not just being able to report the abuse, but asking for help. Being able to have prevention and intervention options to participate. And maybe if you're going to therapy, you want to be able to talk about certain things. You want to have that information in there so you can participate in your mental health sessions, or counseling, and then also having ways to talk about the resources or local services. Having Planned Parenthood or a domestic hotline access in here. Being able to access and talk about those resources. And of course, sharing those resources with friends or people you witness. If you're an AAC user and you know somebody else might need these, being able to share that information with others too is very important.
So some implementation strategies. So looking at how we can support AAC users, especially emergent communicators, with using and learning how to use this type of vocabulary. So just some more, again, I said that there's lots of disclaimers and considerations here. Word choice, again, personal choice. Can't stress that enough. So we want to make sure that we're really considering the age of the person, the environment, so where they're communicating, what they need to be able to talk about. And then personal preferences. Some people might choose that they just don't want to talk about these things at all. As a support person, or a professional, or a peer, you can advocate and say why this is important, but at the end of the day, it is the choice of the individual. And sometimes we have to be OK with somebody might not be ready or they're uncomfortable with this. But as a supporter, we're here when they choose to be ready to talk about these things or add that vocabulary to their system.
We also, too, want to be sensitive to those family and cultural, maybe even religious considerations that might be influencing the decisions on whether vocabulary is on a person's device, and then looking at children versus teens versus adults. So being able to tell parents. It's understandable why a parent might be uncomfortable with certain vocabulary on a young child's device, but then maybe that vocabulary, they might still be uncomfortable with it if their child is an adult, but then advocating that they're an adult, this is more age-appropriate for that individual.
And of course, not every strategy that we look at or we try out is going to work for every single person. Everyone's different, and we never just stick with something. If we're a speech therapist or a teacher, we don't just keep doing something if it's not working. We want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the person and we're switching things up to support them.
And then, of course, it's also important to talk about these words, not just giving access to them, but also talking about how we use them, what they mean, making sure that the person understands and knows what these words are and these concepts as well. And this is more for profanity, but sometimes, in certain situations, you shouldn't be using that sexual health vocabulary. That words can be offensive, they can be harmful, and we might want to reserve those words for instances of reporting name calling, or bullying, or abuse, harassment, things like that. We don't use certain words in every single interaction, so being cognizant and encouraging appropriate use of words can also be important too.
So that goes into the idea of private or public. So awareness of words and concepts as bad and things like privacy, those are learned at a really young age, whether they're really explicitly taught or not. We can say, as a parent, oh, I don't curse around my child. They've never heard curse words. There's a good chance that they have. They probably know how to curse more than you think. And so that's something that people, we're were humans, we're going to learn these things, whether we're explicitly taught them or not. Again, it's that concept of things being taboo, things being bad.
And then we want to make sure, though, that we don't confuse bad and private with things like secret. We want to make sure that private isn't kept. We might have certain people we talk about with, but we don't want it to be secret. It's that idea that sometimes if things are kept secret, then that creates more of an opportunity for abuse. And we also don't want things to be shameful. Even if words are bad, we don't need to feel shame necessarily for using them in every single instance, especially if it's for advocating for ourselves or reporting abuse, those types of things.
And this really does include those words for sexual health and anatomy. And a good way to really teach that idea of private versus public, is that we can have these private conversations about certain topics, about our bodies, with our trusted and familiar communication partners, and maybe identifying who those people are. We can have private conversations with family, and some of our friends, and our support person, our caregivers, our health care, but we probably don't want to tell our neighbor about our hygiene routine or our talking about bathroom and body parts to them. That might not be the best situation.
Maybe we don't want to talk about that at the grocery store, unless we are having an emergency, of course, and we need some assistance. But that might be an instance where maybe we wait and we talk about this at another time. So these are things that you can use as tools to help you start to support someone in these concepts.
And then talking about intimacy and consent. So just because we have this vocabulary, doesn't mean that we necessarily know how to use it. So we want to make sure that we are modeling and using this vocabulary during those hygiene routines. That can be a really great way, especially with young children as well, like during diaper changes, and then for hygiene routines as well as people age to teach that body vocabulary. That this is happening. We're going to clean this area now, and making sure that they're learning the difference between, this is safe touch. This is how my hygiene routine is executed properly and safely, so that this person can then be able to better differentiate when something is unsafe. Something is not happening in the way that it should be. That maybe this is entering a more abusive type of situation.
So then, of course, modeling consent, too, in everyday situations doesn't have to just always be thought of in a sexual context. Hugs, high fives, do you want me to turn the TV on for you? Can I help you? Even those types of things are ways and opportunities to model consent throughout the day.
And then, as individuals get older, we want to support them in having the vocabulary for more intimate relationships. And of course, intimacy doesn't just have to refer to sexual acts. It can be having those more intimate friendships, those deeper personal relationships, those are also important to be able to talk about as well. And then, again, of course, reporting when consent was violated. So when abuse does occur or somebody took advantage of you, being able to talk about those things and report it.
Other considerations too. So considerations for adults with acquired communication disorders. So sometimes when folks maybe experience a traumatic brain injury or have a stroke, their body, their communication changes. And sex and intimacy might have been a really important part in that person's life, but now it looks a lot different. It might even be challenging now.
And communication really plays a huge role in sexual relationships, in that physical intimacy. So if you're a professional working with somebody with an acquired communication disorder, being able to support them in this type of-- having conversations about this. Seeing if that this is an area that they want support in, that they want to talk about, this can be a great way to be able to help them have better quality of life now with those changes in their body that they might be experiencing.
So clinicians, especially speech therapists, this isn't really something that we often think of as, oh yes, we talk about this and do, but you can have these conversations and support individuals. So working with them and their client, just talking about different communication strategies that they might use. If somebody is using an AAC device, this might be that instance where we're going to identify specific vocabulary that we're going to program, and it's going to look different. Maybe we want our more spicy bedroom talk versus using that exact medical terminology. So that might be that instance where we might use our cutesy vocabulary and have that come into play, rather than just those proper terms, because some words aren't the most sexy. So those are just, again, things to think about are going to look different for every person.
And especially for SLPs, there is an online course, if you Google Spice Institute, there's some good resources there for talking about these concepts as a speech pathologist. And then there's also a online course from a Lingraphica that also looks into this more in depth from a individual, and I have some of her work also cited at the end, if you're looking for more information for this particular population.
So now the next couple slides, we're going to be looking at some more AAC examples. So again, another warning-- the next few slides are going to contain more of that explicit language, and we're going to have more of those images of reproductive and sexual anatomy. So just again, if you need to minimize that screen, the pictures are coming up.
So here is how we have some representation on TD Snap of sexuality. We saw one of these screenshots a little bit earlier, but then here is another example. So I'm just going to go through these, explain which app they are, and then leave them just up on the slides for a couple of seconds so you can scan through visually and look at some of the words.
So these sexuality page sets, they're just when we go to that page set, that there's no additional edits. If I have made edits to any page set, they will be noted on the slide and I'll share that as well. Because some of the devices, keep in mind, that every app does have some limitations, has different features. Sometimes you do have to go in and turn on access to more explicit images.
So Proloquo2Go body parts. This is one with edits, so I had to go in and purposefully add vagina, penis, and breast to this particular page set. So the symbols did exist within the system, but they were something that I had to then go and purposefully seek out. So just keep that in mind, that that looks different for every app.
So this is Proloquo, so not Proloquo2Go, and how they symbolize body parts. So a little different on here. You'll see in the bottom corner of the left is a button to access private parts. And then on the image on the right, you'll see that then private parts pops up the window, or the little pop up, with the vocabulary written with text. So not necessarily images or symbols with the default of the app, but you do have the vocabulary written out in text form within Proloquo.
So when we look at Grid, again, disclaimer, there's a lot of images from Grid. They have a lot of really more robust default vocabulary sets. So some of the particular vocabulary sets, you do have to select the adult page sets or adult and teen to be able to have this more expanded vocabulary, access to things for sexual health, intimacy, those kind of more traditionally adult topics. They're not going to automatically be on the child vocabulary sets.
And one thing here, too, that you'll notice is you'll see on the left image a screenshot that there are some blurred out or censored images. For some reason foreskin is not censored. I'm not sure why, but that's just a glitch in the system at the time I took this screenshot. But then they do have more comprehensive vocabulary and images here.
Same thing-- another sample from Grid. So this is their Super Core with their body parts vocabulary. You'll see that they have more detailed vocabulary on here as well. So they have the body parts more broken down, so you can talk about those more specific areas, for example vulva, labia, testes. You have that more specific vocabulary, rather than the more general holistic vocabulary to talk about these body parts.
Moving on, again, more examples from Grid. You have a page set for puberty, so lots of things to talk about with those big life changes. And of course, these words aren't just limited to people actively going through puberty. These types of words can be used throughout your whole life as well, but can be a great way to introduce to somebody when they're participating in that lesson in their Sex Ed class about, oh, your body's changing. So having them to now be able to access that vocabulary here on their system.
And then a page specific for sex. Again, this is just the default. It can be completely updated and edited based on a person's preferences and the vocabulary that they might want to use for actual sex acts. And then reproduction as well, so being able to talk about pregnancy, conception, and all that stuff that's involved with reproductive health here, like C-section, delivery, and birth, all kinds of different things.
And then some more examples of different boards. So this is a board that's for just more general sexual health communication. And then using visual scenes, so this can also be a way to be able to symbolize vocabulary using these types of images. And keep in mind, too, that even though a lot of these are limited to certain apps, that you can always take these ideas or take these word lists and apply them to different apps. So if you're using a system that does have the feature, for example, like the GoTalk NOW app, you could create a visual scene using anatomical images that's a little more interactive rather than the Grid-based language for symbols, so lots of options out there.
So just some final thoughts, and of course, as we're wrapping up, if anyone has any questions or comments, please do feel free to share those in the chat, but these are just some things to take with you today. So what are some vocabulary examples related to intimacy and sexual health to include on AAC devices? Are you an AAC user? Do you know someone who uses or supports AAC users? Are there words that come to mind that you are like, oh, this is missing. I really need to have this on my device, or oh, my child should really have this vocabulary. Let me check and see if it's there. So think about those types of things.
And then, how do we improve AAC user outcomes for sexual health, intimacy, and relationships? That's a bigger, I think, loaded question there. So we can have this information, we can have this vocabulary, and we can talk about here's strategies to teach it, but is this actually happening out in the real world, and then what does it look like? Are we starting to see better outcomes for individuals out in the world? Are we seeing people have more autonomy with their bodies? I don't have the answer to that, but let's get this mindset shifted. Let's be more open and think about how we can do this and advocate for this as stakeholders in this community.
And then, as promised, lots of references here. I highly recommend, too, some great ones to check out would be the works by Donnie Denome. They are an AAC user and have some great publications through assistive wear as well as their personal blog, so I highly recommend that you check those out. And then some additional resources here as well.
And then please do follow TechOWL on social media. We do lots of posts of information and content, as well as posting about new training opportunities, so please give us a follow so you can stay up to date. Just the general TechOWL contact information. Contact information for the Institute on Disabilities.
And then I just ask if you give a chance, if you can complete this survey that lets us know how we're doing. And then also other things that we can include so that we can make sure that one, we keep getting funded to be able to provide you with this great information, and then also so that we know the topics that you want to hear as a community so we can make sure that we are giving the people what they want and need. So please let us know as well.
And I'll leave this one up for a second, and I see that the link is in the chat as well. I'm also going to type my email in the chat. So if you have any other questions, or you'd like a copy of the slide deck, or to talk about any of those resources, feel free to shoot me an email. I'm happy to share any information that I have or send you those slides too.
And then just for on the slide, here is my email again. And I just thank you all for attending. Again, if you think of any questions or you want additional information, you can always feel free to shoot me an email. I'm happy to have a private conversation too. So thank you all for attending today, and have a great rest of your day.
