Research Applications

AAC Intervention Research

• Children with significant communication disabilities (cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, etc.) - 8-40 months
• School-age, adolescents, and young adults with developmental disabilities - 11-21 years
• Adults with developmental disabilities - 37-52 years

Participants
Included a wide range of special needs
Communicated with many different means
—speech and speech approximations
—signs and gestures
—communication boards
—PECS
—speech generating devices

Intervention

• One-on-one sessions
• In the home with family or in the school with teacher
• Usually once per week for 30-60 min sessions

Participants used their AAC systems independently for play and learning as well, and to interact with peers

All children have demonstrated significant increases in their expressive vocabularies

All children have acquired a range of semantic concepts

All participants started with scaffolding support to navigate to appropriate pages

Study #1: Low-Tech VSDs

Most published information on the use of VSDs has been limited to computerized high-tech systems

There are advantages to low-tech

• Where access to computers is not easily available
• Can be used to try things out
• Can be used in environments where computers are not ideal

Intervention Package

• Low-tech VSDs
• Aided modeling

Aided Modeling

• Modeling is critical for language development
• Typically developing children receive many verbal language models; children who use AAC receive far fewer leading to asymmetry between input and output

Research Questions

• Are low-tech VSDs and aided modeling effective in increasing the number of communication turns taken by young children with complex communication needs?
• Are low-tech VSDs and aided modeling effective in increasing the number of unique semantic concepts expressed by young children with complex communication needs?

Participants

Sessions & Materials

• Preschool or day care center
• Play activities and songs
• 6-symbol PCS grid in both baseline and intervention and VSDs in intervention
• VSDs had 1-6 hotspots

Communication Turns

Semantic Concepts

All three participants demonstrated significant increases in the number of communication turns and the number of unique semantic concepts expressed

Low-tech VSDs may help to scaffold learning of new vocabulary concepts using familiar contexts

Low-tech VSDs are a low-cost option for any community that may not have access to high technology or computers

Can be easily developed and incorporated into social communication contexts

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