The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

As the reported incidence of autism rises, communities are increasingly responsible for providing effective services to meet the needs of these individuals.  Current literature states that up to 60% of children with autism do not have functional communication skills by high school.  While many strategies are currently utilized to meet their communication needs, this statistic illustrates that these strategies are not always successful.  LAMP, Language Acquisition Through Motor Planning, is a promising therapeutic approach based on motor learning principles to give individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities who are non-verbal a method of learning and using functional communication through the use of a speech generating device (SGD).

The primary principle of this approach is that the motor plan used to produce a word cannot be changed once it is learned.  This allows the communicator to develop automaticity in accessing their device which is essential so that the individual can monitor his environment and follow the flow of the conversation.  This cannot happen effectively while cognitively navigating icons, categories, and pages.  Vocabulary learned by the emergent communicator builds into a system meeting the needs of the more advanced communicator without the burden of relearning.

Similar to naturalistic strategies in an ABA/Verbal Behavior based program, LAMP stresses the importance of motivating operations and use of effective reinforcers to maintain motivation to learn and use language.  By following the individual’s lead in intrinsically motivating activities, interactive, functional communication is encouraged while maintaining interest.

Particular motor movements are learned and repeated based on the feedback received.  When communicating with AAC, one should experience the natural consequences of communication attempts for functional language to be learned and used.  Consistently, the individual hears the voice output produced by the device; the word or words that matched the motor movement.  The communication partner should provide an animated reaction, the requested activity/item, or some response to enhance the meaning of the utterance.

For an individual to generate whatever he wants to say, the SGD needs to be word based.  Words can be combined in unlimited ways for expression while phrases cannot.  In spoken language, words have multiple meanings.  You can say “turn it on,” “turn around,” and “my turn.”  Therefore, icons need to allow for multiple meanings.  If a different icon was added for each use of the word “turn,” the system would soon be un-navigable.  

The goal of the LAMP approach is to give non-verbal individuals the ability to independently and spontaneously communicate whatever they want to say. Many individuals using the LAMP approach have demonstrated success with some becoming very communicative and some demonstrating increased verbal speech (Stuart and Ritthaler, Perspectives on AAC, 2008; Martin, Mizuko, Linder, and Mizuko, ASHA 2008; Potts, ASA conference 2010; Collender and LoStracco, ATIA Nov. 2010).  Videos of children exhibiting the different components of the LAMP approach will be utilized throughout the presentation.  Research showing the use of LAMP strategies within an ABA/VB program in which the presenter was involved in will be shared.