Test of Aided-Communication Symbol Performance (TASP) Review
by Amanda Hartmann
TASP from Joan Bruno and Mayer-Johnson, LLC
Everywhere we go, we see symbols! It’s becoming a world of symbols – but how do we know that the symbols and activities we choose will meet the needs of individual clients? What size should our cards, boards or devices be? How many symbols do we place on the page at a time? What kind of words do we use – nouns, verbs or adjectives? What other vocabulary does the client know and understand? Can they use more than one symbol to make a sentence?
The TASP can answer these questions! It contains a number of simple step by step tests that enable us to determine a client’s strengths and weaknesses in using symbols to communicate. With this information we can then make better decisions about the symbols and communication systems needed. All clients can be assessed in a consistent and comprehensive manner – no guess work and much less trial and error!!
The TASP can be used with children or adults who would benefit from a communication board or an AAC device. It does require that they can point directly to symbols throughout testing and would require some modification for clients with physical impairments who are unable to point. The manual provides some case examples of people using communication devices to complete the TASP. During testing you complete the Answer Sheet, which is able to be photocopied as needed, or even easier – printed directly from a CD contained within the assessment folder.
The TASP has four main tests.
- Symbol Size and Number
This allows us to determine the maximum number of symbols a client would be able to select from. This is useful for planning communication boards and books and even speech-generating devices. - Grammatical Encoding
This test allows us to determine what symbols the client knows and understands. Different verbs, nouns, adjectives and location words are tested. When planning both intervention and communication displays, having information about the client’s word knowledge may be very practical. - Categorisation
Having knowledge about a client’s ability to categorise words, is useful when planning communication displays and intervention. It tells us whether clients can cope with and understand topical page sets, or grammatical based page sets. This test asks clients to classify words into categories, eg. “cake” --> Is it transport, food, clothing or animals? - Syntactic Performance
The final test on the TASP is valuable to see whether clients are able to combine symbols to produce sentences. It tests a wide variety of sentences, from simple two word sentences “Baby wash” to longer sentences like “The girl is washing the doll”. Clients can copy and independently point to the symbol combinations and are based on a series of photographs.
Perhaps the best bit about this assessment is being able to use the information you gather about a client, to make good clinical decisions regarding:
- The design of a communication board (or page set on a communication device), and
- Important goals for therapy and intervention.
The summary and recommendations sections on the Answer Sheet, allows you to compile and consider all of the necessary information taken from the assessment.
I recently completed the TASP on a young client I am working with. At the end of the assessment these are some of the questions I was able to answer:
- I knew what was the best configuration for a communication board.
- I knew how many symbols I should include on the board and what size they should roughly be.
- I had a selection of symbols (nouns vs. verbs) that I expected could be used spontaneously.
- I had an idea about some areas of symbols that would benefit from some specific training.
- I knew that the client was ready for topical page sets as oppose to a grammatically organised page set.
- I knew what topics/ areas were most familiar for the client (eg. People vs. places vs. describing words) and which ones could be targeted in intervention.
- I had a greater understanding about whether the client was capable of make symbol combinations – how many words and what levels of cueing and support are required.
The TASP is a great starting point for determining the individual needs of clients who are potential symbol users.
Please contact me directly on amanda@spectronicsinoz.com should you have any questions about the TASP.
Amanda Hartmann
Speech-Language Pathologist
SPECTRONICS
Inclusive Learning Technologies®
PO BOX 88
ROCHEDALE QLD 4123
AUSTRALIA
Phone (07) 3808 6833
Fax (07) 3808 6108
Email amanda@spectronicsinoz.com
Australian Web www.spectronicsinoz.com
New Zealand Web www.spectronics.co.nz