Augmentative and alternative communication in the Philippines: a survey of speech-language pathologist competence, training, and practice

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey study was undertaken to describe the perceived competence, pre- and post-professional training, and practice of Filipino speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Printed and electronic questionnaires were distributed to all SLPs in the Philippines with at least 1 year of practice experience. A total of 152 (47%) questionnaires were returned. Based on these data, 108 respondents (71%) practiced AAC, but most (range = 59–89%) did not perceive themselves to be competent in working with various client populations with complex communication needs. A majority (range = 70–93%) of the respondents reported limited pre-professional training in all AAC content areas, and at least 82% strongly desired continuing education in almost all areas of AAC. Almost 90% of respondents only occasionally (53%) or rarely (36%) recommended AAC, and 82% considered it as a last resort. Major practice challenges reported were families’ negative attitudes toward AAC and lack of AAC-specific interdisciplinary collaboration. Infrequent use of high-tech AAC was also reported. The findings suggest various ways through which AAC education and services in the Philippines may be enhanced. They also imply the need for further research on alternative service delivery models, as well as additional members of the AAC team.

Keywords:

• Augmentative and alternative communication systems
• developing countries
• professional competence
• professional education
• speech-language pathology
• surveys and questionnaires

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Google Forms is a product of Google LLC, Mountain View, CA. https://www.google.com/forms/about/

2 SPSS for Windows version 15 was released in 2006 by SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL. https://www.ibm.com/analytics/spss-statistics-software

3 Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS^®) is a product of Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc., New Castle, DE. https://pecsusa.com/pecs/

4 Picture Communication Symbols (PCS™) is a product of Mayer-Johnson^®, a part of the Tobii Dynavox Family, Pittsburgh, PA. https://mayer-johnson.com/pages/pcs-symbol-collections

5 Blissymbols is copyrighted by Blissymbolics Communication International (BCI), Sweden. http://www.blissymbolics.org/

6 Proloquo2Go is a product of AssistiveWare^®, Amsterdam, Netherlands. http://www.assistiveware.com

7 TapToTalk is a product of Felix Kloft. https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Felix+Kloft

8 TouchChat™ is a product of Silver Kite, Millersburg, OH. http://www.silver-kite.com/

9 Tom Taps Speak is a product of Seer Technologies. http://tomtaps.com