Theory-Driven AAC Practices With Adults Who Use Utterance-Based Systems: The Case of Conversational Rule Violations

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the pragmatic issue of when to use pre-constructed utterances by discussing a research project investigating messages that fail to meet either conventional standards of contextual appropriateness or timing. The use of pragmatic theory to systematically examine pre-constructed messages will be discussed, along with the outcomes of using messages that do not seem to follow pragmatic rules. The development of a hierarchy of types of rule violations will be described and the clinical implications of the hierarchy will be explored.