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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

This study investigated the acquisition of communication skills of children who use AAC systems following their parents' participation in a communication partner training program. Communication skills evaluated were mean length utterance (MLU), number of different symbols used, initiations, and responses. Communication partner training was divided into two phases, training and follow-up. Participants included 4 children between the ages of 3 and 9 years who used a high tech AAC system. Data was collected over the course of a year via 15 minute video observations. Parents also completed surveys pre- and post-study to evaluate perceptions on increases in communication behaviors, as well as in AAC across communication partners and environments. Results varied across participants. No increases were seen in MLU. Two participants increased in vocabulary, three participants increased in initiations, and two participants increased in responses. Parents reported increases in all areas evaluated, as well as increases in AAC use. Results of this study further validated the need to implement communication partner training in AAC intervention.

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