Resource 3
Fitzgerald Key
The design for the original Fitzgerald Key is shown below. It was originally designed to teach deaf children to sequence sentences according to traditional spoken English word order. It can be helpful as a framework for display construction for individuals who will eventually follow a predominantly English word order. Basically, symbols are organized in linear columns as follows:| PEOPLE | VERBS |
PREPOSITIONS ARTICLES CONJUNCTIONS |
ADJECTIVES ADVERBS |
THINGS OBJECTS |
PLACES | TIMES | SOCIAL AMENITIES |
Slight adaptations to the structure of the Fitzgerald Key are made, to accommodate the conventions used when communicating with Blissymbolics.
In the far left column of the display as it faces the user, appear social amenities, questions and people (white and yellow shading). Next to people are verbs (green), followed by adjectives and adverbs (blue), then nouns (orange). Above this vocabulary, in the top two rows (plus four Bliss-words in the 3rd. row), there are more social amenities, along with prepositions, conjunctions, articles, strategies. In the last column on the far right side of the display, are prepositions, a conjunction, and time Bliss-words.
McNaughton, 24-30.