Increasing Reciprocal Social Interactions Between Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Peers Using a Collaborative Learning Framework.

PURPOSE: Children with complex communication needs who rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies to express themselves face significant difficulties interaction with peers. This study sought to design, implement, and evaluate a collaborative photography intervention designed to increase reciprocal social interaction between children who use AAC and their same-age peers. METHOD: A single-subject, withdrawal design (ABAB) was used to explore the functional relationship between engagement in a collaborative photography intervention and the frequency of reciprocal social interactions between children who use AAC and their same-age peers. Partial-interval time sampling was used to code the number of reciprocal social interactions across four dyads. RESULTS: Increased frequencies of reciprocal social interactions were observed in intervention phases across all four dyads. Very large levels of effect and 100% nonoverlapping data were noted for Dyads 1 and 4. Moderate levels of effect and 70% of nonoverlapping data were noted for Dyads 2 and 3. CONCLUSIONS: Collaborative learning frameworks may be used to increase reciprocal social interactions between children who use AAC and their peers. Speech-language pathologists should consider utilizing collaborative learning elements in activities with children who use AAC. Future research is needed to further explore collaborative learning frameworks for interventions for children who use AAC. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25464064.

Design of aided augmentative and alternative communication systems for children with vision impairment: psychoacoustic perspectives.

Children with complex communication needs often have multiple disabilities including visual impairments that impact their ability to interact with aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. Just as the field benefited from a consideration of visual cognitive neuroscience in construction of visual displays, an exploration of psychoacoustics can potentially assist in maximizing the possibilities within AAC systems when the visual channel is either (a) not the primary sensory mode, or (b) is one that can be augmented to ultimately benefit AAC outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to highlight background information about psychoacoustics and present possible future directions for the design of aided AAC system technologies for children with visual impairments who rely on auditory information to learn and utilize AAC.

Utilising collaborative learning strategies with children who use AAC: A pilot online training program for speech-language pathologists.

PURPOSE: Children who utilise augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) have difficulty participating in interactions with peers and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) lack training in the development of activities to specifically target participation. The purpose of the current study was to explore a pilot online training program designed to provide information about the development of collaborative learning (CL) activities to support participation. METHOD: A single-subject, multiple baseline across six participants in an initial group and a replication group was completed to assess the number of CL elements included in probe responses during baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. RESULT: SLPs were highly accurate in their ability to answer multiple choice questions about CL elements (80%-90%); however, the overall effect of the intervention was weak with a Tau-U of 0.48 for the initial group and 0.53 for the replication group. CONCLUSION: SLPs can begin to develop skills in designing CL activities for children who utilise AAC as a means to support participation and foster social interaction. Future research is necessary to design efficient and effective online training for SLPs.

Animation in AAC: Previous research, a sample of current availability in the United States, and future research potential.

Animation has been studied in the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) literature regarding increasing transparency of symbols and decreasing operational demands of the interface design. This study investigated a sample of AAC devices to determine the presence and purpose of animation in the systems. We found that the majority of the animation found on AAC devices serve the function of providing feedback to the user. Future exploration of the use of animation in AAC through capitalizing on previous research, new technology, and as a method to foster linguistic and operational competence are considered. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.

Increasing reciprocal social interactions using collaborative art activities: An intervention for children with complex communication needs and their peers.

Purpose: Children with complex communication needs who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies to communicate have difficulty participating in interactions with their peers. Integrating a collaborative learning framework with art activities may facilitate social interactions between children with complex communication needs and their peers.Method: A single-subject withdrawal design was utilised to examine the impact of collaborative art activities on reciprocal social interactions between 2 dyads of participants with complex communication needs and their same-age peers. Additional dependent variables included the roles of participants with complex communication needs in interactions (initiator or responder), AAC modalities (unaided, aided, natural speech), and engagement.Result:Tau-U calculations for Dyad 1 demonstrated 64% improvement from baseline, indicating moderate effects with the collaborative art activity (Intervention One) and 100% improvement, indicating strong effects following the activity enhanced with photography (Intervention Two). Dyad 2 demonstrated 100% improvement from baseline following Intervention One and 96% improvement following Intervention Two, indicating strong effects.Conclusion: Both collaborative art activities demonstrated potential for facilitating social interactions for children with complex communication needs and their peers.

Creating a Path for Systematic Investigation of Children With Cortical Visual Impairment Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Purpose There is limited information about how to support children with cortical visual impairment (CVI) who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). An initial review designed to explore the available evidence was used to outline critical needs in moving research and intervention forward for children who use AAC and have CVI. Method Previous systematic reviews, six databases, and theses and dissertations were systematically searched, along with reviews of the resulting works cited. An initial yield of 575 articles was narrowed to 10, which discussed AAC interventions that included children with CVI. Results Three interventions were technology based, and seven were instructional based. The use of textured microswitches was the most frequent form of technology intervention, with the frequency of switch activations being the most frequently coded outcome. Overall, the studies represent explorations in the area rather than systematic lines of inquiry. Conclusions While evidence shows at least some children with CVI have been included in AAC research to date, the inclusion is more incidental than deliberate. Issues such as clear descriptions of the vision capabilities and needs of participants may have impacted study results.

Music Improves Social and Participation Outcomes for Individuals With Communication Disorders: A Systematic Review.

There is increasing interest in exploring the benefits of music in rehabilitation settings. In the field of speech-language pathology, an ultimate goal for individuals with communication disorders is to foster participation across multiple contexts. The goal of this systematic review was to explore social and participation outcomes for individuals with communication disorders who received arts-based interventions. A systematic search of the literature yielded 86 studies, which were coded and summarized in terms of participants, arts-based intervention, social and participation variables, outcome, and quality of evidence. The majority of identified studies (N = 71) utilized music. Results indicated that music-based interventions can improve social and participation outcomes, such as frequency of responses, initiation of communication, turn-taking, joint attention, and group participation for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder and developmental and acquired communication disorders; however, future research is needed to expand the use of varied arts-based interventions targeting a larger breadth of social and participation outcomes.

Exploration of Head Related Transfer Function and Environmental Sounds as a Means to Improve Auditory Scanning for Children Requiring Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Many individuals who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) cannot directly select items on computer-based displays. Individuals who also have visual impairments may need to rely on sequential announcement of array choices in auditory scanning. The method is challenging and there is a lack of research to improve this access method. Two potential solutions were tested: using environmental sounds to represent items (e.g., the sound of a clock ticking for a clock) and providing spatial cues regarding the organization of items (e.g., presenting auditory information and altering temporal and spectral features so that sounds are heard as left, right, up, or down relative to each other). The individual and combined effects of these cues were tested with typically developing 3-year-old children. After collecting and validating a set of stimulus sounds, 24 children participated in a within-subjects design with four conditions (spoken word label only, associated environmental sound only, spoken word label with spatial information, associated environmental sound plus spatial information). Dependent measures included reaction time (RT) and accuracy. Results indicated that the use of sounds without any spatial cues revealed slower RTs than any other conditions. Also, sounds regardless of spatial cues led to less accurate scores than words.

Identification and drawing of early concepts in children with autism spectrum disorder and children without disability.

This comparative study is a replication and extension of previous work related to children's drawings of early concepts. In all, 15 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 19 children without disability took part in the study, and were video recorded as they drew 10 early emerging concepts such as "eat" and "more." In a second task, the participants were asked to label Picture Communication Symbols conventionally used in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. Descriptive, correlational, and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results were consistent with previous research for both groups. Across the 10 features coded, participants in both groups drew entire scenes and were more likely to draw complete representations of people. Identification of PCS was less than 25% for both groups. After a brief time delay, the participants were able to remember the names of their drawings; however, performance on this recall task was positively related to their age. The language scores of the participants without disability were associated with their use of isolated parts in drawings. Trends in the data suggest potential avenues for follow up with larger studies examining use of self, others, and entire scenes in children with ASD. Implications for therapy and future directions pertaining to symbolic understanding in children with ASD are discussed.

Designing augmentative and alternative communication applications: the results of focus groups with speech-language pathologists and parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to gain insight from speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) regarding appealing features of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) applications. METHOD: Two separate 1-hour focus groups were conducted with 8 SLPs and 5 parents of children with ASD to identify appealing design features of AAC Apps, their benefits and potential concerns. Participants were shown novel interface designs for communication mode, play mode and incentive systems. Participants responded to poll questions and provided benefits and drawbacks of the features as part of structured discussion. RESULTS: SLPs and parents identified a range of appealing features in communication mode (customization, animation and colour-coding) as well as in play mode (games and videos). SLPs preferred interfaces that supported motor planning and instruction while parents preferred those features such as character assistants that would appeal to their child. Overall SLPs and parents agreed on features for future AAC Apps. CONCLUSION: SLPs and parents have valuable input in regards to future AAC app design informed by their experiences with children with ASD. Both groups are key stakeholders in the design process and should be included in future design and research endeavors. Implications for Rehabilitation AAC applications for the iPad are often designed based on previous devices without consideration of new features. Ensuring the design of new interfaces are appealing and beneficial for children with ASD can potentially further support their communication. This study demonstrates how key stakeholders in AAC including speech language pathologists and parents can provide information to support the development of future AAC interface designs. Key stakeholders may be an untapped resource in the development of future AAC interfaces for children with ASD.

A comparison of the performance of 2.5 to 3.5-year-old children without disabilities using animated and cursor-based scanning in a contextual scene.

Although recent evidence suggests learning demands for children can be reduced by organizing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) displays in contextual scenes, there is little evidence on how such scenes could be made accessible for children who cannot use direct selection. Using a line drawn scene of a living room, a traditional traveling cursor (a green outline of objects within the scene) was compared with sequential animation-logically matching the function of items in the scene (e.g., hands of a clock moving, a lamp turning on and off, etc.). After three learning sessions, only the matched function animation condition revealed a significant increase in accuracy scores from session 1 to session 3. Age-related trends suggested the mean scores in the cursor-based condition were associated with older children consistently performing at high levels and younger children remaining at low levels, while trends in the animated group were associated with children learning the interface in a way not associated with age. Findings support that enhanced presentations of scanning can increase the transparency of the scanning interface for some children and suggest that contextual scene displays could benefit from animations and sound for children not using direct selection.