AAC technologies with visual scene displays and “just in time” programming and symbolic communication turns expressed by students with severe disability

ABSTRACT

Background: The current study investigated the impact of an intervention that included aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies on the frequency of symbolic communication turns of school-age children, adolescents, and young adults with severe disability.

Method: Nine students ages 8–20 were engaged in interactive activities using an aided AAC system with visual scene displays (VSDs; concepts embedded within a photograph of a naturally occurring event), and “just-in-time” (JIT) programming (the capability to add new contexts “on the fly”). Effectiveness was evaluated using a single subject multiple probe across participants design.

Results: All participants demonstrated increases in symbolic communication turns upon introduction of the AAC technologies with VSDs using JIT technology.

Conclusions: AAC with VSDs and JIT programming may be effective in increasing symbolic communication for students with severe developmental disability. The fast and easy creation of VSDs and hotspots to provide communication may be a valuable tool for interventionists.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmentative and alternative communication
• school-age
• adolescents
• severe disability
• technology

Acknowledgements

Portions of this project were presented at the biennial conference of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, July 2014, Lisbon, Portugal. With appreciation to Abby Correia and Nicole Duffy for assistance with coding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kathryn D. R. Drager http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9972-0280

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an SBIR Phase 1 grant #1R43HD059231-01A1 from the National Institutes of Health and by grant # H133E080011 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education.