Abstract:
PURPOSE : Speech language pathologists recommend graphic symbols for AAC users to
facilitate communication, including labelling and expressing emotions. The purpose of the
current study was to describe and compare how 5- to 6-year-old Afrikaans- and Sepedi-speaking
children identify and choose graphic symbols to depict four basic emotions,
specifically happy, sad, afraid, and angry.
METHOD : Ninety participants were asked to select the graphic symbol from a 16-matrix
communication overlay that would represent the emotion in response to 24 vignettes.
RESULTS : The results of the t-tests indicated that the differences between the two groups‟
selection of target symbols to represent the four emotions are statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONS : The results of the study indicate that children from different language groups
may not perceive graphic symbols in the same way. The Afrikaans-speaking participants
more often chose target symbols to represent target basic emotions than did the Sepedi-speaking
participants. The most preferred symbols per emotion were identified and these
different symbols were analysed in terms of facial features that distinguish them.
