Error patterns and revisions in the graphic symbol utterances of 3- and 4-year-old children who need augmentative and alternative communication

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the errors and revisions (i.e., repairs) that 3- and 4-year-old children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) make as they construct 2–3-word utterances using graphic symbols. The current study involves supplemental analyses from a previously published manuscript. Various types of errors and revisions for four different semantic-syntactic structures—agent-action-object, entity-attribute, entity-locative, and possessor-entity—were analysed to explore patterns and differences across utterance types. Results indicated that the majority of errors were made during the baseline phase, and that error types varied depending on the utterance type. For example, inversions were common for agent-action-object utterances, but omissions were common for entity-attribute utterances. When the participants revised their utterances, the resulting messages were more accurate the majority of the time, regardless of utterance type. Past research has highlighted frequent word order errors within graphic symbol messages, but the current results indicate that error types are dependent upon utterance type. A more refined approach, then, is required to better our understanding of how children approach the task of learning to produce graphic symbol utterances.

Keywords:

• Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
• language
• preschool; intervention; error analysis

Endnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the children and families who participated in this study, as well as UNM AAC lab students Marika King, Lindsay Mansfield, Elijia Buenviaje, Cayla Otero, and Jesse Trujillo for their assistance. As always, many thanks to Jennifer Kent-Walsh for her contributions on this and all of our projects.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The Apple iPad is a product of Apple Inc. www.apple.com/ipad.

2 Proloquo2go is a product from AssistiveWare and is an AAC software application developed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. http://www.assistiveware.com/product/proloquo2go.

3 The Minspeak application program is owned by Semantic Compaction Systems and manufactured by the Prentke Romich Company, 1022 Heyl Road, Wooster, OH 44691.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by NIH Grant 1R03DC011610.