Peer-Mediated AAC Instruction for Young Children With Autism and other Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Many young children with developmental disabilities (DD) have significant delays in social, communication, and play skills. For those children learning to use augmentative and alternative communication (.AAC% successful social interactions with peers will require explicit instruction on the same system for both communication partners. Peer-mediated (PM) interventions are recommended best practice based on more than 30 years of research with young children with autism and other DDs. Integrating direct AAC instruction within PM programs to advance social reciprocity in typical preschool routines is a necessary and important next step for young AAC users. In this article, I will summarize the design and outcomes of two PM AAC studies documenting positive social outcomes for preschool children with severe autism. I will also teach} peer partners how to use AAC highlight strategies to recruit peers without disabilities systems (e.g., Picture Exchange Communication System [PECS], Speech Generating Devices [SGDs]), and engineer the preschool classroom for successful AAC communication. I will describe data collection procedures for measuring changes in reciprocal child and peer social communication interactions.

A Systematic Review of Play-Based Interventions Targeting the Social Communication Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Educational Contexts

“…Studies were excluded based on the following criteria: (1) the article was written in a language other than English; (2) the study design was a case study; (3) the play intervention was a form of play therapy; (4) participants included children outside of the pre-defined age range (3-13 years) who could not be isolated from the overall sample with regard to the effect of the intervention; and (5) play was used as part of a multi-component intervention approach alongside strategies including peer training sessions (e.g. Brock et al, 2018;Hu et al, 2018;Kamps et al, 2014;Katz & Girolametto, 2013;Kuhn et al, 2008;Laushey & Heflin, 2000;Lee et al, 2007;Maich et al, 2018;Thiemann-Bourque, 2012;Whitaker, 2004), direct teaching sessions (e.g. Szumski et al, 2016Szumski et al, , 2019 or other naturalistic classroom activities including snack or toilet (e.g.…”

Support for AAC Use in Preschool, and Growth in Language Skills, for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

“…Given that language input and modeling by teachers is often low during classroom interactions (Brady, Herynk, & Fleming, 2010), additional input by peers could bolster the amount of communication input (both speech and AAC) that is likely to improve child language development. Thiemann-Bourque (2012) reported that, following a peer-mediated social intervention training on use of PECS, four children with autism increased their average communication acts to peers using PECS from 0 in baseline to 4.4 per 6-min play session, and peers increased their use of PECS materials directed towards play partners with autism from 0.2–7.4 per session, that is, peer initiations and responses using PECS increased after they were specifically taught how to use the same AAC system as the children with autism, which supports more opportunities for language modeling and social interactions for these children.…”

Dispelling Myths Surrounding AAC Use for Children: Recommendations for Professionals

“…Furthermore, peers can be important communication partners when implementing AAC interventions (Bourque, 2020). Peers can help model and teach the AAC system, use the AAC system to converse with the child, and encourage social interaction using the AAC systems and strategies (Thiemann-Bourque, 2012). When children have peers who use AAC strategies and communicate with them using their AAC system, they experience significantly more language growth than children who do not have peer support (Barker et al, 2013).…”