Variables affecting perceptions of social aspects of the communicative competence of an adult AAC user

Abstract

This study examined the effects of aided message length, partner reauditorization, and observer background experience on ratings of social aspects of the communicative competence of an adult augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system user. Two groups of subjects participated: adults with minimal exposure to nonspeaking individuals and speechlanguage pathologists currently working with AAC users. After each viewing of a videotaped, scripted conversation between an individual simulating an AAC user and his normal-speaking partner, subjects responded to a questionnaire that included 13 statements pertaining to social aspects of the AAC user's communicative competence. Results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) performed on these responses indicated that aided message length affected subjects' ratings of the AAC user's amount of participation, management of partner attention, and degree of social ease, while reauditorization had no effect on these or any other items. Group differences were found on responses to selected items, where the AAC user was rated higher by the subjects inexperienced in AAC than by the speech-language pathologists.

• augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
• communicative competence