Using the iPad to facilitate interaction between preschool children who use AAC and their peers

Abstract

Social interaction is one of the key components of education, yet children with complex communication needs often face social isolation in the classroom, rarely interacting with same-age peers. This study investigated the impact of the provision of an iPad(®) (1) with an AAC app with visual scene displays and a dyadic turn taking training on the number of communicative turns taken by children with complex communication needs in interaction with same-age peers. Two preschool children with complex communication needs and six peers without disabilities participated in this research. A single-subject, multiple probe across partners design with one replication was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention on the frequency of communicative turns expressed by the children with complex communication needs. Parents, teachers, speech-language pathologists, and the children participated in social validation measures. As a result of intervention, Participant 1 showed immediate gains in the frequency of symbolic communicative turns after the first training session across all three partners (average gains of 30-46 symbolic communicative turns per 10-min session across peer partners). Participant 2 showed some initial gains, but they were not maintained over time (average gains of 11-24 turns across partners). Classroom implications and future research directions are discussed.

Augmentative and alternative communication practices: a descriptive study of the perceptions of South African speech-language therapists

“…The reasons for this shift include affordability, ease of use, increased accessibility, functionality, and interconnectivity (McNaughton & Light, 2013). This shift has had implications for the decision-making process in terms of the selection and recommendation of these and other technologies (Goldbart et al, 2014;McNaughton & Light, 2013;Therrien & Light, 2016). In addition, recent provision of state funding for assistive technology (including AAC devices) in some South African provinces (Van Niekerk, Dada, Tönsing, 2017) may influence AAC technology provision.…”

Using Digital Texts in Interactive Reading Activities for Children with Language Delays and Disorders: A Review of the Research Literature and Pilot Study

“…To date, VSDs have provided important communication supports for a wide variety of persons with complex communication needs. [36][37][38] For interactive reading activities, the use of VSDs enables the adult to create a digital text that both addresses the interests of the child and incorporates features that will support the development of the child's language and literacy skills. To create a VSD (or a series of VSD images) for a storybook reading activity, the clinician takes a picture of a book page and then programs selected images in the text as hotspots on the tablet screen.…”

Innovations for Supporting Communication: Opportunities and Challenges for People with Complex Communication Needs

“…Finding ways to reduce programming demands so that these materials can be seamlessly integrated into interactions offers a profitable avenue of research [10, 11]. The pervasiveness of these materials offers a shared base from which peers and individuals who use aided communication can build interactions [6] as well as invaluable opportunities to explore the flexibility of the human capacity for language and communication [57, 58]. …”

“…The world of SGDs would never look quite the same again [4]. Not only did the iPad © represent a new form of SGD, spawning an ever-growing range of apps for AAC use (see, e.g., http://www.callscotland.org.uk/downloads/posters-and-leaflets/ipad-apps-for-complex-communication-support-needs/) and triggering new intervention studies to evaluate its potential as an SGD [e.g., 5, 6], it also transformed expectations of traditional SGDs. The potential to seamlessly link images, video, text, and sound created new multimedia platforms that fundamentally changed the way that text and graphic symbols could be imagined to co-exist.…”

“…Emerging evidence suggests that dynamic visual scene displays programmed with “hotspots” (specific areas of a display/picture programmed with unique messages or features) can be effective in enhancing language, literacy, and interaction skills in children [6-8] and adults [9]. These technologies have enabled new and simpler programming strategies, allowing programming to be responsive to interaction demands, often referred to as “just-in-time” (i.e., programming of vocabulary in the moment of interaction where that vocabulary is needed) [10-12].…”