Tawasol Symbols Project

Funded by an NPRP award [NPRP 6 - 1046 - 2 - 427] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation)

Amatullah KadousA.I. Ahmad, D. Banes, E.A. Draffan, M. Wald,, N. Zeinoun, O.Sabia & D. Lawand

• There is a growing number of individuals who can benefit from AAC

• Learning disabilities are the most common primary disability for Arab speakers

• 34% of those with another disability also have a learning disability. (Zetterström - 2012)

• Their needs are being met by the use of externally developed AAC symbols systems

Project Background

Sample image used in AAC settings thanks to ARASAAC Symbols

Project Aims

• To develop a freely available Arabic symbol dictionary suitable for use by individuals who have a wide range of communication difficulties (creative commons license)

• To develop a set of symbols that are culturally, linguistically, religiously and environmentally appropriate for AAC users in Qatar and the Arab world.

• Lack of articles and research • Setting up forums and workshops• To involve symbol users, families, therapists,

teachers and experts • To learn more about the use of symbols in Qatar

and the Middle East • Advisory group, ‘critical friends’ and a voting system

Iterative and Participatory Approach

Method used to collect data for vocabulary and symbols

Step 1: AAC forum + survey

Step 2: Core vocabulary

Step 3: Symbol Voting

Data collection

• 20 therapists attended from 9 centers • Purpose of forum:

- Know the demographic of AAC users in Qatar- Qualify AAC users concerns/issues with AAC

currently

Step 1: AAC Forum

Survey Findings

0 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 21+0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Most populated AAC user age group

Number of ST's work-ing with this age group

Autism

Speech

or langu

age im

paired

Multiple disabiliti

es

Developmental

delay

Neurogenic d

isorder

Intellectu

al disa

bility

Deaf/blin

d

Literac

y Diffi

culties

other 0

2

4

6

8

10Most Prominent Diagnoses

Number of ST's working with this condition

Survey Findings

Survey Findings

Most Commonly Used Symbol Sets

PCS Boardmaker

Other (google images/pictures)

SymbolStix

Widgit

Makaton

ARASAAC

Pictures

Electronic S

ytems

Gestures

Real objects

Manual Signs

Other (BigMac, K

eyboards)

02468

101214

Most Commonly used AAC types

Survey Findings

1. Culturally & Linguistically inappropriate symbols

• Inappropriate symbols send mixed messages• AAC users can’t relate to foreign symbols• Arabic linguistic rules occasionally disregarded

Concerns with Symbols in Qatar

Challenges using culturally appropriate Symbols

2. The need for an English & Arabic Symbol Dictionary

• Therapists speak English = Therapy in English• Expats make up 86% of Qatar• Nannies/drivers speak

English

Concerns with Symbols in Qatar

Linguistic Issues for Arabic AAC • Lack of Arabic core vocabularies• Diglossic nature of Arabic• Many dialects across Arab region (MSA, Egyptian,

Lebanese, Moroccan, and Kuwaiti)• Bilingual situation - communication charts and

devices based on English linguistic rules and Westernised concepts/imagery

• Arabic morpho-syntactic structure will affect Symbol to text translation

Sample images used in AAC settings thanks to Picture Communication Symbols (PCS)

I read your red book today

Read Iقرأ�ت

book your كتابككتابك

the redحمر األ�

todayال�يو�م

Symbol to Text: English vs. Arabic

Correct Arabic Symbol Sentence

I read your red book today

Why an Arabic core vocabulary was needed• Vast differences in linguistic structures• Requests for symbols not available • Requests from teachers, therapists and other

researchers in the field• Evidence

“Non-symbolic as well as symbolic forms of communication are culturally dependent” (Huer, 2000).

Need to adapt AAC resources to meet characteristics of the Arabic written system, and to address the presence of diglossia and a lack of culturally appropriate vocabulary (Patel and Dakwar-Khamis, 2005)

Arabic frequency list: Data collection• Visited 7 centres/organisations across Doha to

collect most commonly used symbols/words • Collected from classrooms, progress notes, AAC

devices, therapists and parents • 1500+ words in total

Limitations of Tawasol frequency list

• Stripped of grammatical markers; prefixes, suffixes, affixes e.g =أم أمي

My mother mother= pronoun frequency• Stripped of diacritics = change in meaning due to

homonyms e.g / عمل عمل= workplace (noun) vs to do (verb)• Stripped of context e.g. bathroom routine contains

word “pull down” designer oblivious to bathroom context

• Based on AAC lists

Arabic frequency list: Comparing

Arabic frequency list vs Arabic language lists

Compared against 3 other lists (minimum 500 words per list) and finally with a 4th list used by therapists in Lebanon

• Written and spoken material (Buckwalter & Parkinson, 2014),

• Web and newspaper data (Kilgarriff et al, 2014),

• Reading lists based on curriculum (Oweini & Hazoury, 2010; Zeinoun, N. 2005 & Qatar Supreme Educational Council (SEC) – reading list Grade 1, 2, 3 and kindergarten)

Each entry given a POS for comparison

Arabic frequency list: Comparing

Arabic AAC list vs English lists

Compared against 3 other lists (minimum 500 words per list)• Adult bespoke AAC list (Beukelman et al, 1984)

• school based vocabulary - Dynamic Learning Maps core vocabulary (Dennis et al, 2013)

• Word frequencies in written and spoken English based - British National Corpus (Leech & Rayson, 2014)

Each entry given a POS for comparative purposes

Key Findings

Beukelm

an En

glish

DLM En

glish

Lancs

Doha

Buckwalt

erKelly

Oweini-Hazo

ury SEC

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

English vs Arabic POS

adjective adverb conjunction determiner expression interjection

noun preposition pronoun verb

English Arabic

Key Findings

Arabic AAC vs Arabic language lists- Nouns: 54.9% in Arabic AAC to 54.5% in Arabic language- Verbs: 19% to 15%- Pronouns: 1.7% to 2.4%

Arabic vs English- Twice as many nouns in Arabic (55% to 27%)- More verbs in English (29% to 16%)- More pronouns in English (8% to 2%)- Similar percentage of adjectives across languages and

lists

Key Findings• Arabic word lists similar in POS make up to Arabic AAC

lists• Nouns in Arabic core because pronouns connected

as affixes and suffixes = classified as nouns• Use of many verbal nouns in Arabic may also skew

results

-أنthat

- أن اI/me

-كانwas

- ذ ه بgo

- كرةball

ار ة - سيcar

- علىon/to

- موز ةbanana

to - إ لى - أر ا دwant

05

1015202530

Most Frequently Used Entries

Arabic frequency list: Consolidating

• Arabic AAC in it’s infancy but participants’ requests to move into literacy and environment

• Participants came back to us needing more complex words e.g. monotheism!

• Consolidation – religious and prayer symbols, The Prophet book, and curriculum based symbols

• Working with 10 therapists to identify core and fringe vocabulary

Graphic designer to use criteria for future symbols designed

Criteria checked by AAC forum

Criteria for symbol design developed based on comment analysis of AAC forum

Symbol added to online symbol manager for AAC forum review

Symbol uploaded to Google+ for internal team review

Graphic designer to re-create symbol that is culturally, linguistically, religiously and environmentally appropriate

AAC forum to choose preferred freely available symbol set

Symbol Design Process

• ARASAAC vs. Sclera• ARASAAC preferred because closer in style to PCS and

those participating on Doha tended to like detail

Choosing a Symbol Set as a Basis

Thanks to ARASAAC and Sclera for their symbols

Internal Review: Google+

Upload to Online Symbol Manager

Symbol Voting

Results: Criteria for Culturally Appropriate Arabic symbols

• Qatari Female: Abaya and Shela • Qatari Male: Thobe and Ghutra • General Arabic dress code: Hijab and modest clothing• Minimise gender mixing • Reduce display of physical affection with opposite sex

(holding hands is fine)

Cultural Factors

• Darker complexion and hair colour • Facial hair for adult male characters• Not too much skin showing • No stick figures

Physical Features

Environmental Factors Use local currency Reduce greenery Use local landmarks, foods, carsand use local architectural style

• Religious sensitivities • Religious holidays • Religious figures • Religious sayings/phrases

Religious Factors

• Flip symbols to fit Arabic symbol orientation (right to left)

• Male and female versions for each symbol • Including dual form of symbol where necessary

Linguistic Factors

• Initially 45% of ARASAAC symbols voted as inappropriate for use in Qatar

• Improvement in cultural suitability of symbols (4.38 out of 5)

Results

Batch 1 early 2015 Batch 2 late 2015 Batch 3 early 2016 Batch 4 late 20163.20

3.40

3.60

3.80

4.00

4.20

4.40

4.60

Symbol Voting Averages scored out of 5 for each Criteria

Feelings about symbol Represents word/phrase Colour contrast Cultural sensitivity

Resources

Implications

• Core vocabulary for language learning and literacy not the same for English, Arabic or German

• Communication boards will look different in Arabic because of linguistic and cultural factors

• Composition of Arabic words and position in sentences can change so matching symbol to text problematic

• Avoid translating from Arabic to English and then to German

• Ideally German/Arabic speaking Speech therapist should be involved to support symbol layout with appropriate referents.

Implications

• Arabic spoken words are very different to Arabic written words so perhaps we need to decide whether:

1) We want them to be able to communicate in Arabic as well as read/write

2) Arabic boards should be in MSA or a specific Arabic dialect?

Personalise

Globalise

AAC User

Localise

Implications for TherapistsHow can the user’s AAC be individualised to suit their personal needs?

How can the user’s AAC be made appropriate for engagement in their environment, language and culture?

How can the user benefit from global AAC trends and resources?

• Email: info@tawasolsymbols.org• Website: www.tawasolsymbols.org• Facebook: Tawasol- “Arabic Symbol Dictionary for

AAC users”• Blog:

www.access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/blog/symboldictionary/

Connect With Us

Thanks go to ARASAAC Symbols for their support http://arasaac.org/