BLlSSYMBOLS: AN ALTERNATE SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION FOR THE NON·VERBAL ADULT APHASIC PATIENT

A group often non-verbal aphasic patients who had not achieved any functional communication after a minimum of three months of conventional speech therapy were introduced to the Blissymbolic System. Based on their ability to learn and use this visual communication system, the subjects were divided into two groups effective versus ineffective symbol users. Both groups were characterized by their similarities and differences on the PICA, Schuell's Minnesota test, the ITPA, and Raven's Matrices. It was found that the better Bliss symbol users were younger, had suffered their CVA more than two years ago, and had better scores on the visual subtests oflTPA, Raven's Matrices and Schuell' s test. However, subjects did not appear to use the system in a functional way in their own environment. Research is beginning to be reported in the area of alternate systems of communication for adult aphasic patients. Most of these reports are concerned with visual systems of gestural (Skelly et aI., 1975), pictorial or symbolic representation. Gardiner, Zurif, Berry and Baker (1976) used a combination of abstract and pictographic symbols to depict nouns, verbs, grammatical morphemes, and punctuation. They noted that five of eight patients were able to learn and use a limited number of symbols in response to commands, questions and requests for descriptive information. Their results suggested that some cognitive operations of natural language persisted despite severe (global) aphasia. Kirby (1978) reported limited but functional use of Blissymbolics with one patient whose aphasia consisted of reduced receptive skills and severe oral apraxia. Blissymbols, developed by C. Bliss (1949), combines printed words with universally recognized symbols to form a complete visual communication system. This system has been used as an alternate system with cerebral palsied children since 1971 at the Ontario Crippled Children's Centre as reported by Kates and McNaughton (1971). (See Figure I) WOMAN AIRPLANE HAPPY