Robin Hurd

Language Activity Monitoring (LAM)

by Robin Hurd

This month, I thought we would talk a little bit about Language Activity Monitoring (LAM) and how parents can use it. My intention here is not to try to be a salesman for the AAC institute, but to help you become familiar with what’s out there that may be helpful to you and the staff that support your child. We will also talk a little about the privacy issues surrounding language activity monitoring, so you can make informed decisions for your family.

Language Activity Monitoring (LAM) is an option that comes standard on some AAC devices. When activated, it records all of the communication your child generates on the device, and the time of day. Other devices that do not have LAM on them already can use U-LAM software to transfer information directly from the device to a computer as the words are being spoken. U-LAM can be used with any speech output AAC device from any manufacturer.

So why would I want to know this information anyway? LAM can help out in several ways. First, it shows how much time elapses between hits. This can really help to determine whether the access method is efficient. If a child is trying out two different access methods, you can tell at a glance which method is the fastest. And speed is what every AAC user wants! Another big use for LAM is to look at the language a child is using. How many words is the child using in each “sentence”? (Your speech-language pathologist calls this Mean Length of Utterance or MLU) What are the words that your child uses most often? (word frequency) Are there types of words that your child is not using that would help him make his meaning more clear? (ex: a child who strings together objects, but doesn’t use verbs.) A third bit of helpful information that the LAM can tell you is in which environments your child is saying the most. You may find, for instance, that your child is making complete sentences when in therapy with the SLP, but in the classroom with other staff, only single words are used Two things then become clear: Your SLP is doing a good job, and he or she needs to focus on teaching other staff the skills they need to be equally as successful. Or the team may decide that this success is due to the quieter atmosphere of the therapy room, versus the busy classroom environment, and modifications can be made to the setting to improve outcomes.

For parents, knowing these things can help determine how best to help your child. You can be a more informed member of the team that is making decisions about your child. You can find out what areas of language you can focus on, both at home and at school, to increase your child’s language skills. You can point out to the staff where success is happening, with a view to increasing success in all environments.

The nuts and bolts of LAM are this: You hook the device up to a computer and send data from the device to the computer. That information can then be stored on the computer until such time as you are ready to deal with it. Your computer will need to have LAMterm installed on it. For more details on the nuts and bolts of this, as well as on the Performance Reporting Tool (PeRT), which can help you evaluate your LAM data, see the AAC institute web site under Products and Services. (www.aacinstitute.org)

Whenever LAM or any kind of data collection is used, there are ethical concerns. The point of LAM is not to snoop at what your child is saying, as if you were eavesdropping, but to gather information that will help increase skill on the device. To that end, language samples should only be given to others who will respect your child’s privacy as well. For older children, they should be aware of when the LAM is being used, and be able to refuse to use it if they like. They should also look at any information that is to be passed on to the team, to give their permission about whether to show it to staff. (I may not want my team to know that I hate my teacher, even if I used some wonderfully complex language forms to say so!)

Language Activity Monitoring can be a very useful tool for parents as well as professionals to find out more about a child’s language use in relaxed environments as well as in a therapy setting. When used in a way that respects a child’s privacy, it can give the child and his parents useful information to help document current successes as well as provide directions for future achievement, with the long term goal of reaching the individual’s full communication potential.

As always, I love to hear from you! This column is written by a parent for parents, and your questions and concerns are welcome. E-mail me at parents@aacinstitute.org.