Background: People who have communication difficulties may benefit from using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Understanding and measuring outcomes from the use of AAC is an important part of evaluating the impact of devices and services. Outcome measurement needs to reflect the changing nature of the impact of using AAC on an…

Despite advances in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), outcomes among children who require AAC remain discouraging. Practitioners may benefit from guidelines to aid decision-making in relation to supporting pre-linguistic communicators. We conducted an open-ended questionnaire of 30 AAC professionals from six…

This article presents the rationale, evidence base, and strategies for teachers and related service personnel to implement peer-assisted Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) modeling with their students with complex communication needs within inclusive settings across the school day. Specific steps for teaching the student's same-age…

This edited volume presents the latest research focussing on current challenges on the deployment of smart technologies and pedagogies for supporting teaching and learning in the post-covid19 era. This is at the core of studying the evolution of the learning process, the role of technology-supported pedagogical approaches, and the progress of…

People who have both autism spectrum disorder and complex communication needs require specialized, multidisciplinary interventions and supports to boost their independence and quality of life. Find up-to-date, evidence-supported information and strategies in this book, the newest volume in the respected Augmentative and Alternative Communication…

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a picture-based alternative communication method that is widely accepted and utilized with individuals with disabilities. Although prior studies have examined the clinical efficacy of PECS, none have experimentally evaluated its manualized training structure. We experimentally evaluated the…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of teaching an integrated requesting-rejecting sequence. Four children with developmental disabilities were taught to request missing items and reject wrong items using either speech-generating devices (SGD) or picture-exchange (PE) communication. Data showed that the introduction of the…

Establishing a relation between existing skills and acquisition of communicative responses may be useful in guiding selection of alternative communication systems. Matching and motor-imitation skills were assessed for 6 children with developmental disabilities, followed by training to request the same set of preferred items using exchange-based…

Purpose: To compile and then validate a set of evidence-based best practices related to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and its role in fostering the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms and other inclusive settings. Method: A comprehensive review of the literature pertaining to AAC and…

Three nonspeaking children with autism who had used facilitated communication were evaluated with four experimentally controlled tasks. Findings suggested a generalized language deficit, rather than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and were consistent with previous studies revealing facilitator cuing. Questions are raised about…

Three children with autism who used facilitated communication were given sentence completion statements in which correct responses were either known or unknown to the facilitator. Responses were evaluated in relation to form accuracy (spelling) and content accuracy (correctness of answer). Results strongly suggest that the content of responses was…

Four students (ages 9-17) with autism and severe mental retardation were shown cards with fill-in or short-answer questions or blank cards and responded using facilitated communication. Although 95% of the responses were correct when the facilitator knew which item was presented, only 19% were correct when the facilitator was unaware of the…

Ten individuals (ages 14-51) with autism participated in 6 experimental facilitated communication sessions, 2 with no help, 2 with partial assistance, and 2 with full assistance. Within each session, the facilitator had knowledge of the experimental stimuli on half of the trials. Results revealed no cases of correct responding independent of…

Nineteen adults with developmental disabilities, judged competent in facilitated communication, participated in a validation study using an information passing design requiring short-term recall of stimulus cards with shapes, colors, and numbers. Results failed to validate facilitated communication for the group as a whole, any individual…

Reports on part of a project aimed at creating tools for training teachers in the diagnostic and adaptation process of Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) systems for disabled children. Based on evaluation results the long-term objective is to add tutorial and coaching features to the system to be used in special-education training…