Bliss in Germany

Thomas Franzkowiak

June 2002

Blissymbolics have been used in Germany since the late seventies. From 1980 until 1997 there have been about 2000 participants in Bliss elementary training courses and follow-up seminars. Additionally there have been numerous Bliss short courses and introductory seminars at several universities in various German regions.

In the 80s, the German “Bliss-Arbeitskreis” (i.e. the group of German Bliss senior presenters) was one of the most important groups in Germany which co-ordinated not only Bliss but also other AAC training courses and the publication of AAC materials.

With the foundation of ISAAC-GSC the Bliss Arbeitskreis reduced many of its former activities since we gladly co-operated with ISAAC and its many German members who promoted AAC in Germany more easily and with stronger support than we had been able to before. ISAAC started its own AAC training courses, trained a number of AAC presenters (and up to now there are many ISAAC seminars in Germany throughout the year) and organised biennial national conferences. As I wrote in an earlier report (in 1998), there were two main causes for the decline of Bliss in Germany:

1.     In the 80s, “easier” graphic symbols for AAC users appeared on the market. They were more simple to reproduce (with special software) and many people felt it was not necessary to participate in Bliss elementary courses anymore.

2.     The focus shifted from graphic symbols to technology. With the introduction of powerful talkers many teachers, AAC specialists and parents wanted to start with electronic communication aids as early as possible. So why bother and take the “detour Bliss”, a lot of people thought.

In 1998 the German Bliss Arbeitskreis revised the Bliss elementary courses. We felt they had to become shorter (instead of four days only two and a half day) and should concentrate on topics which ISAAC introductory courses would not cover.

However, it was not possible to find enough participants for a revised Bliss elementary training course in 1998. There were only six or seven persons and therefor we had to cancel our course.

In 1997 I gave my last official Bliss elementary training course with certificates. From then on I have included Bliss on a regular base in a introductory AAC seminar at Cologne University. Until now, we have not offered Bliss elementary seminars anymore since there are not enough people interested in such training.

There might be new chances for Bliss, though. In 1996, I have started a research project together with the literacy specialist Prof. Hans Brugelmann of Siegen Universaty, Dpet. Of Elementary schoolteachers training. Our project focuses on natural speaking children with a risk of experiencing reading and spelling difficulties at school. 

Bliss- A Conventionalized Graphic Symbol System Bridging the Gap between Figurative Drawing and Traditional Orthography

A research project of the university of Siegen, funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft) and supported by the state Government of North-Rhine Westphalia

Many children fail in beginning reading and spelling instruction. Research over the last ten years has focused on phonological awareness as the main prerequisite for the acquisition of literacy. The role of experiences in traditional orthography and other graphic representational forms before school entry has been neglected.

Our project has been designed as a fiels study with three different types of intervention (introduction to Bliss as a logographic symbol system vs. Phonological training without reference to alphabetical writing) plus control groups.

Subjects are children half a year before school entrance, preferably if they have limited experience of print and therefore are expected to spend an extra year at “Schulkindergarten” before they become first graders.

Our goal is to find out whether experience with graphic symbols can improve the chances for success in reading and writing instruction, moreover, whether children with limited experience of alphabetic writing benefit from a Bliss instruction prior to their school entrance.  

An intensive study with two waves with three heterogeneous treatment groups in kindergarten and a third  and fourth wave with the same treatments in groups of “children at risk” (each with process documentation) will be supplemented by an additional, broader study in regular settings. In this supplementary study only pre- and post-tests will be conducted; educators will receive all the materials they need in order to try out the different treatments.

The project began in March 1996 and ended in June 2001. We are in the middle of the data analysis right now.

First results of the study and more information about its background can be downloaded (at this time only in German) from: www.uni-siegen.de/~agprim/bliss/index.htm. More online publications are to follow.

As it seems Bliss has been especially helpful for those pre-school children with the lowest scores on experiences with print. I hope our project will haven implications for naturally speaking children who might experience reading and spelling difficulties as well ad for young AAC users. As Shirley McNaughton has shown Bliss can be very helpful for AAC users on their way to become literate.

May be, I hope, some people “within the AAC community” in Germany will become more interested in Bliss again if they discover its potential within the literacy process.

I doubt, however, that Bliss will ever again have such a strong base in Germany as it used to have in the eighties and nineties of the last century.

24.6.2002-09-01

Thomas Franzkowiak, Hauptmannstr. 3, 57489 Drolshagen, Germany

Tel./Fax *49-2761/73868

Thomas.franzkowiak@t-online.de