The Importance Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Devices

Have you ever experience a moment when you were unable to communicate your words, or couldn’t think of the word to use the feeling you were trying to describe? Everyone has felt this way before, possibly multiple times per day. But the reality is for the people in our community with autism, this is a constant feeling of difficulty to communicate effective with others. The people that are diagnosed with autism face the daily obstacles of being unable to use their voice and having to learn different ways to read body language and tone of voice, something that comes fairly easy to most of us. The communication barriers facing people with autism enable us to work past the differences and find a new way of communicating that is effective for them.

Ganz, J. B., Earles-Vollrath, T. L., Heath, A. K., Parker, R. I., Rispoli, M. J., & Duran, J. B. (2012). A meta-analysis of single case research studies on aided augmentative and alternative communication systems with individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 42(1),

Per the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), autism spectrum disorder or autism is defined as a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction. It is characterized by difficulty communicating, forming relationships with people, using language correctly and comprehending abstract concepts. It has the presence of restricted, repetitive behaviors. Many challenges exist in the use of

Although the module was on Autism, many practices presented could also work for Lucia, a case study child who is not diagnosed with autism. Lucia is nine years old. She is in fourth grade and attends a suburban elementary school. Lucia has multiple disabilities including cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability and a language delay. Lucia’s primary language is Spanish. She also uses both a wheelchair and augmentative communication device to accommodate her needs. The case study, indicates that Lucia has progressed in many areas, however, more evidenced based

Communication is significant issue for many children with autism. They do not contact with other people clearly, and they also have many issues in using the language correctly. In the article “Cerebellum, Language, and Cognition in Autism and Specific Language Impairment” Hodge (2010) writes that children with autism have difficulties at the individual understands (receptive language) as well as what is actually spoken by the individual (expressive language) are significantly delayed or nonexistent. In other words, children with autism face difficulties to express their thoughts clearly or response to other people. However, In the article “Making Meaningful Worlds: Role-Playing Subcultures and the Autism Spectrum” Fein (2015) claims that there

Autism spectrum disorder hinders a child’s capability to interact and communicate with others; “ASD is now defined by the American Psychiatric Association 's Diagnosis

Communication is a fundamental life skill that enables us understand those around us as well as provides a means to work together to achieve goals. However, those who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder have a large disadvantage at birth in this area due to the nature of the condition. The sobering reality is “many children with ASD are delayed in the development of their first words or phrases” (Bernier and Gerdts, 7). Children without any development disorders tend to produce a single words by 12 months and by 24 months have begun to form speech that is two to three words in length. While “ many children with a ASD develop single words at 24 months or later and phrase speech at 36 months or later. Some children with ASD do not develop spoken

The purpose of this chapter is to review the literate that identifies and examines early identification of social communication deficits related to autism spectrum disorder. It will also review literature based around early interventions to improve social communication deficits. This paper will begin by identifying retrospective research studies followed by prospective students. It will continue with evidence based interventions identified by the American Speech – Language – Hearing – Associations (ASHS)

For example, autistic children often use “picture boards” to communicate with others or learn a daily routine. The efficacy of visual instruction may generalize to higher-level skills such as social interaction. Ganz, Kaylor, Bourgeois, and Hadden (2008) used visual cues while instructing three children with ASD to follow social scripts. This study expanded on previous findings that autistic children who are taught to perform social scripts demonstrate improved conversational skills. For each child, the researchers created three scripts for different activities such as playing in a sandbox or coloring. A script consisted of short sentences the child could say while conversing with a peer about the activity. Each child was first taught his or her scripts to mastery. Research established baseline performance by instructing the child to perform a script with a peer for the first time. During the conversation, the participant received no other cues. Each child subsequently underwent intervention sessions, during which they were shown cue cards with appropriate lines of their script accompanied by a picture as they conversed with their peer. Lastly, the child was again required to perform the script without cues in a return-to-baseline condition. During baseline, intervention, and return sessions, researchers noted the verbal statements that the participant made, categorizing statements as scripted, unscripted, and preservative. Unscripted speech consisted of any statements not in the script, and unscripted statements were also categorized as preservative if they were repetitions of a previously spoken statement or out-of-context sentences. Researchers responded to perseverative statements discouragingly by showing a “shhh” card containing a drawing of a face with an index finger over the

Past and present researchers, professionals, and educators have made large attempts at discrediting the "fad" autism intervention, facilitated communication. For the articles cited, the concept of FC carries no importance whatsoever in working with someone on the autism spectrum. This paper looks into those articles to make an attempt at defining facilitated communication, disproving facilitated communication, and explaining the perseverance of facilitated communication over the decades. The main objective of this paper is to explore the concept of FC and increase awareness that will hopefully help in bringing a stop to this seemingly never-ending movement.

Some children with autism experience delayed speech and communication skills while others may use no language at all. It should be noted that most of these children use spoken language, but in most cases they don’t integrate these skills to communal interactions in their daily life. More often, it has been revealed that children with autism may miss to attain functional speech and some are said to be totally non-verbal. Failure to communicate in a purposeful way may be the most disturbing symptom of this disorder. Deficits in communication and language abilities have been cited as the major behavioral variation for young children with autistic disorders. Poor communication is seen to

“Spoken communication plays a major role in displaying the personality of an individual. Based on the effectiveness of this means, the prestige, social status and image can be maintained” (Sangeetha, 2012, p. 329). Fortunately, there are assistive technologies such the alternate and augmentative communication (AAC) Tobii M Series.which helps persons with speech and language impairments communicate effectively and meaningfully within the community, regardless of their literacy and language development. Its versatility tailors to an array of disabled persons of all ages and levels of cognitive and physical ability. It is most suitable for persons with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, aphasia, and amyotrophic sclerosis (ALS) who have high

The topic for today's reading was Augmentative Communication Systems-Sign Languages, PECS. In the assigned reading and module, we observe that a characteristic of autism is difficulty developing and using verbal speech to communicate with others. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is used to help children with autism to develop a system for communicating with others across multiple environments. It is used most often with learners that are non-verbal, but can also be used with learners with limited verbal skills. PECS can be used across age ranges, starting in preschool, to help individuals with ASD communicate with others. In fact, research has shown that learners can use PECS to increases their work production

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) generally present with stereotyped behaviors and interests, as well as deficits in social interactions and communication. Deficits in communication include delayed speech and language development, auditory comprehension difficulties, echolalia, speech regression, and impaired pragmatic skills (Boesch, Wendt, Subramanian, & Hsu, 2013). Moreover, it has been estimated that approximately 25% to 61% of children with ASD have limited to no functional speech, (Schlosser & Wendt, 2008) and as many as 30% of children with ASD may never develop spoken language (Agius and Vance, 2015). Due to this, appropriate treatment may involve the implementation of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

Taken as a whole, results from previous studies reviewed provide evidence for the effectiveness of picture exchange communication system (PECS). Specifically, picture exchange communication system (PECS) is effective in enhancing functional communication skills of individuals with ASD. Therefore, PECS is recommended as an evidence-based intervention for this study. Nevertheless, several points are these should be considered regarding recommending of PECS as an evidence-based intervention. Most of the participants of the studies included in this study were male (100%), which most likely is a reflection of the differential prevalence rates of autism across genders. The pattern of gains exhibited by the participants were similar for males and females, which indicates that the picture exchange communication system (PECS) training had the same effect regard-me effect regardless of gender. The participants in the studies