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Author:

O'Neill, Tara Anne

Title:

Perspectives of Parents of Children with Cerebral Palsy on the Supports, Challenges, and Realities of Integrating AAC into Everyday Life

Graduate Program:

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Keywords:

In order to ensure long-term adoption and use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies
they must be designed to support children to participate within everyday activities and routines that are prioritized by families. Nine parents of children with cerebral palsy who used AAC technologies participated in semi-structured interviews to provide their perspectives of how AAC technologies were integrated into the functional contexts of everyday life. Five major themes emerged from the discussions: (a) integrating AAC into life
(b) AAC technologies
(c) child needs and skills
(d) parent responsibilities and priorities
and (e) AAC process and decision-making. Children were able to use AAC technologies within a variety of everyday contexts with various partners; however
challenges included access to AAC within physical and outdoor activities and partners who lacked knowledge regarding operational competencies and effective interaction strategies. In order to integrate AAC technologies into life
parents prioritized technology features including ease of programming
improved physical design (e.g.
lighter
wearable
easy to mount
durable)
features to enhance efficiency and ease of access (e.g.
brain-computer interface
sentence prediction)
and availably of multiple functions and features (e.g.
facial recognition software
augmented reality
projection capabilities
capability to control wheelchair). AAC manufacturers and mainstream technology developers should work to ensure that technologies are responsive to the supports
limitations
and ideal features identified by parents. Future research should seek input from a larger group of stakeholders and use longitudinal methods to examine perceptions of AAC technologies over time. Keywords: technology design
augmentative and alternative communication
parents
cerebral palsy
service delivery
technology design
family

File:

Download ONeill_final_dissertation.pdf

Committee Members:

Krista M Wilkinson, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Krista M Wilkinson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Janice Catherine Light, Committee Member
Carol Anne Miller, Committee Member
Rick Owen Gilmore, Outside Member