The effects of literacy interventions on single-word reading for individuals who use aided AAC: a systematic review

Abstract

The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the effects of instruction on single-word reading of individuals who use aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). A systematic search identified nine single-case experimental design studies that involved 24 individuals who used aided AAC. Overall, the evidence indicated that instruction had positive effects on reading at the single-word level for individuals across ages and diagnostic categories (i.e., autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy (CP), Down syndrome, and intellectual disability). The studies revealed that these effects were consistent across a range of participant, intervention, and outcome measure characteristics. Phonological approaches, sight-word approaches, and a combination of these two approaches yielded very large effects. Despite the large effects, the findings must be viewed with caution due to limitations in the number of studies and participants and limitations in the reporting of detailed participant and intervention characteristics across the studies. In order to determine which interventions are most effective for which individuals, future research directions are discussed, including the need for greater specificity in describing participant and intervention characteristics, investigations into how to best measure intervention outcomes without requiring spoken responses, and investigations into longer-term interventions targeting a wider range of reading skills.

Keywords:

• Systematic review
• single-word reading
• augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

Portions of this article were submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of PhD requirements at The Pennsylvania State University Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. This project was supported, in part, by funding from the (a) Penn State AAC Leadership Project, a doctoral training grant funded by U.S. Department of Education grant #H325D110008; and (b) Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (The RERC on AAC), funded by grant #90RE5017 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation (NIDILRR) within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).