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• Duetointrinsicandextrinsicchallenges,manyindividualswithCCNandASDareunabletoreadorwriteatgradelevel(Koppenhaver&Yoder,1993;Foley&Wolter,2010)andthesereadingdeficitsthenpersistthroughadolescenceintoadulthood.

• Althoughliteracyinstruction(includingsightwordinstruction)isimperative,improvedfeatureswithinAACtechnologiescouldalsobeusedtocomplementinstructionandinfuseliteracylearningintodailycommunication.

INTRODUCTION METHOD

RESEARCHQUESTIONS

• Design:Asingle-subjectmultipleprobeacrossparticipants• IV:AACappwithtransitiontoliteracy(T2L)softwarefeatures

(i.e.,dynamictextandspeechoutputuponselectionofagraphicsymbol)

• DV:Accuratelyreading12targetwords• Participants:

RESULTS

• TransitiontoLiteracy(T2L)softwarefeature(Lightetal.,2014)wasusedwithinaNovaChat12(Saltillo)withGrid-BasedAACDisplayofmotivatingwords

DISCUSSION• Whiletechnologicalchangeshavebeenmadetohardware,AAC

softwarehasremainedrelativelystaticindesign.Researchtoexploreinnovative,evidence-baseddesignchangestoAACsystemstoenhancelanguageandliteracylearningandimprovecommunicationperformanceisneeded.

• Thisstudyprovidespreliminaryevidencethatredesigninggraphics-basedAACsoftwaretoincludeT2Lfeatures, whenusedinahighlystructuredmanner,canresultinimprovementsinsight-wordreading.

• Thedirectactivepairing(bothbetweenthetextandgraphicsymbolandbetweentextandspeechoutput)cansupportlearningoftheassociationbetweenawrittenwordanditsreferent.

• ResearchisneededtoexploretheT2Lsoftwarefeatureswithavarietyofsettingsandpopulations

• Note:Theappisintendedtobeusedtocomplement,notreplace,literacyinstruction.

Challengeswithcurrentsystems:Grid-basedAACsystemscommonlyusepairedtextandgraphicsymbolstorepresentconceptsthatindividualscommunicatewith.Previousresearchdemonstratedthatstaticpairingofprintandgraphicsymbols,blockswordlearning.

PotentialSolution:ChangestoAACsystemdesign,specificallydynamictextpairedwithspeechoutputuponselectionofagraphicsymbol,couldpotentiallyleadtobetterliteracyoutcomesforindividualswhouseAAC(Lightetal.,2014).SeefigureinMaterialsforanexampleoftheAACsystemdynamicallypresentingtheword“red.”

ThereisanurgentneedtobetterunderstandhowdesignfeaturesinAACsystemscansupportimproved

literacyoutcomesforindividualswithcomplexcommunicationneeds.

• WhatistheeffectoftheAACappwithT2Lontheacquisitionofsight-wordacquisitionof12words,duringahighlystructuredtask,byindividualswithASD,complexcommunicationneeds,andlimitedliteracyskills?

• AretheeffectsmaintainedonceexposuretotheAACappwithT2Lfeaturesisterminated?

• Dotheparticipantsgeneralizethesight-wordskillstoatext-onlyAACgriddisplay?

PROCEDURES

1. The individual selects the graphic symbol (e.g., red)

2. The text dynamically appears from the graphic icon that was selected

3. The word is spoken from the device, the text replaces the grid and stays on the screen for 3 seconds

4. The word dynamically disappears back into the graphic icon that was selected

5. The grid is back to original view – with statically paired graphic symbol and text

Baseline Intervention Generalization Maintenance-Sightwordprobes- Probe=Assessmentandincludesresearcherpresenting4imagesand1word

-Sightwordprobes(assessment)-ImagematchingtaskwithdevicewithT2Lfeature-4exposuresperword,persession

-Sightwordprobes(assessment)withtext-onlydisplay

-Sightwordprobes(assessment)-Short-term:2-4weeksafterlastinterventionsession-Long-term:8-16weeksafterlastinterventionsession

Participant Total# ofsessions

Total#ofexposurestodynamictext

Totaldynamictextexposure timeperword

(inseconds)

Joe 8 84 96

Nikko 5 20 60

Wade 6 24 72

Doug 6 24 72

Tim 6 24 72

Dynamictextexposuresummary:

JessicaCaron,JaniceLight,ChristineHolyfield,&DavidMcNaughtonThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity

EffectsofDynamicTextandSpeechOutputinanAACAppwithGraphicSymbolsOnSingle-WordReadingofIndividualswithAutismSpectrumDisorderandComplexCommunicationNeeds

ContentsdevelopedunderagrantfromtheNationalInstituteonDisability,IndependentLiving,andRehabilitationResearch(NIDILRRgrant#90RE5017)totheRERConAAC.ThecontentsofthispresentationdonotnecessarilyrepresentthepolicyofNIDILRR,ACL,HHS,andyoushouldnotassumeendorsementbytheFederalGovernment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Percentageofsightwordsreadcorrectly,perparticipant,outof12trials

• 5maleswithASD• Ages6;3– 14;0• 4individualsparticipatedinASD

supportclassroomswith1:1aidesand1individualwasincludedinalearningsupportclassroomwith1:1support

• 2individualsusedAACthroughouttheday(NikkoandWade),3individualsusedscriptedspeech,oftenwithdelayedecholalia

Allparticipantsdemonstratedgainsfrombaseline.TheexposuretotheAACappwithT2Lfeaturesresultedinstrongeffectsonsight-wordperformance(NAPgreaterthan.85)(Parker&Vannest,2009),withNAPcalculationsresultingin100%non-overlappingdataforallparticipants.Inaddition,theparticipantsgeneralizedtheirlearningtoatext-onlyAACdisplay,asignificantlymoredifficulttask.

Thefiveparticipantsinthisstudylearnedtorecognizethetargetedsightwordsin20to32exposurestothedynamictextT2Lfeatures(approximately1-2minofexposureperword).