The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Electronic communication aids and tablet devices are increasingly being used to support a variety of communicative functions. This presentation will show evidence-based strategies and research on augmentative and alternative communication to build up functional communication, elicit speech and language and facilitate social-pragmatic skill development. This session will focus on interventions in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). One of the core ASD symptoms includes a “delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language”. Approximately 25-50% of children with ASD are functionally non-verbal and will not develop sufficient natural speech or writing without ongoing and systematic AAC intervention. AAC augments or replaces spoken language through alternative means of communication.

The speech and language impairments are closely connected to difficulties with social communication and interaction, which are at the core of autism. Therefore, autism intervention should ideally address as many of these symptoms in a comprehensive delivery model. The overall purpose of this presentation will be to familiarize practitioners such as speech pathologists and behavioral therapists with strategies to implement AAC in the larger context of enhancing social interaction and pragmatic skills in the learner with autism who is minimally verbal.

The first part of this session will briefly review evidence-based AAC strategies to facilitate functional communication skills, and develop natural speech production. Strategies include unaided approaches such as manual signs and gestures, and aided approaches such as graphic symbols, exchanged-based communication, electronic communication aides, and tablet devices. Particular emphasis will be on the application of iPads and AAC apps. The presenters will identify features of evidence-based AAC apps that are most suitable for autism intervention and showcase how to infuse these into behavioral and social-communicative instruction.

The second part will demonstrate how to extend an AAC intervention towards social-interaction and social-pragmatic training when learners are moving past the point of initial communication training. Now, mostly naturalistic approaches such as aided language input, or aided language modeling, are used to increase the range of communicative functions and move from requesting to labeling, commenting, protesting, greeting, sharing, and game-playing with others. Increasingly, intervention shifts from working one-on-one with an interventionist to a social group approach that may also include typically developing peers.

The final focus will be on incorporating parents into AAC and social skills training. Because iPads and apps are affordable, a parent-implemented training program can be a very cost-efficient, yet effective intervention option. In our research project, parent-training consisted of (a) modeling by an experienced clinician followed by role-playing, (b) composing of video resources for parent review, (c) written instructions (“cheat sheets”), and (d) review of video-taped sessions with feedback. Results underscore the value of joint parent-professional partnerships, and the need for practitioners to develop expertise on parent training.

The entire session will be research-based, using data and video-cases from recent single-subject experiments to illustrate successful intervention strategies and their implementation into daily activities around the family home and classroom.

Finally, speech-language and behavioral therapists will be able to:

• Identify key steps in a comprehensive AAC intervention model to move from initial communication to social-pragmatic training
• Outline the pros and cons of a variety of AAC strategies to facilitate functional communication skills, enhance natural speech production and increase social-communicative behaviors.
• Describe how to engage parents in intervention efforts.

Learning Objectives: