Prompting for repair as a language teaching strategy for augmentative and alternative communication

Abstract

Conversational repair has been found to play a fundamental role in the acquisition of language. This paper describes existing research on conversational repair and its relationship to language learning, whether a first language or a second language, as well as its relevance to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). A case is made for incorporating prompts to repair in conversation-based language interventions with children learning to use AAC. We argue that interventions targeting linguistic complexity should encourage self-repair in conversation in order to develop linguistic and operational competency as well as increase automaticity when using AAC. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• Augmentative and alternative communication
• language intervention
• recast
• repair

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).