Communicative participation changes in pre-school children receiving augmentative and alternative communication intervention

Abstract

Purpose: This paper reports changes in communicative participation skills—systematically measured and described—in an empirical observational case series of eight children receiving augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions.

Method: The eight children (seven boys, one girl), ranging from 1 year 4 months to 4 years 11 months (mean = 2.8 years; SD = 1.32 years) received varied AAC interventions (i.e. sign language, assistive technology, PECS), averaging 15 hours of treatment over a 12-month period. Parents completed an outcome measure (FOCUS) three times: at the start, mid-point (6 months) and end of the intervention period (after 12 months). They also completed the ASQ-SE at the start and end of intervention.

Result: FOCUS scores increased over the treatment interval, indicating improvement in real-world communication skills as observed by their parents. The ASQ-SE items that pertained to communication also improved, while the items that did not correspond to communication did not. This divergence suggests that the communicative participation improvements resulted from treatment rather than general developmental gains. The largest improvements were noted in receptive language/listening, pragmatics and social/play skills. Improvements in intelligibility were also measured for several children.

Conclusion: These results suggest that AAC intervention facilitated improvements in communicative participation skills in pre-school children.

Keywords::

• Augmentative and alternative communication
• treatment outcomes
• pre-school children
• participation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Funding Reference: 86573 & 86884) and the Bloorview Research Institute as well as our decision-making partner, Claire MacLean, from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, ON. We also want to acknowledge Teresa Nelles and Penny Fortier, Alberta Children's Hospital, Alberta Health Services, AB; Kate Wishart, BC Centre for Ability, BC; and Shelly Deegan, Technology Access Clinic, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, ON for their time, energy and commitment to promoting outcome measurement in speech-language pathology. The authors wish to thank the clinical staff at all of these sites for their commitment to this research project and the parents of the children reported here for their participation.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

^† The FOCUS^© outcome measure can be downloaded from the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital website or located at www.focusoutcomemeasurement.ca