Effect of an AAC app-based video training on peers' accuracy identifying communicative behaviors in presymbolic middle schoolers with multiple disabilities

Open Access
- Author:
- Holyfield, Christine Elizabeth
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 17, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Kathryn D R Drager, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kathryn D R Drager, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Janice Catherine Light, Committee Member
Carol Anne Miller, Committee Member
David Brent Mcnaughton, Outside Member - Keywords:
- augmentative and alternative communication
multiple disabilities
communication partner intervention
developmental disability
mobile technology - Abstract:
- Consistent partner responsivity builds the associations that bring about the start of symbolic communication in language development. Middle-school students with multiple disabilities who have not yet transitioned to the symbolic stage of language development likely encounter varying responses to their presymbolic communicative behavior from the different communication partners with whom they interact throughout the day (e.g., teachers, parents, peers), resulting in a major barrier to their language development. In an initial attempt to address this barrier, the current study evaluated the impact of a peer partner training on those peers’ performance discriminating between specific communicative behaviors and non-communicative behaviors performed by three middle schoolers with multiple disabilities and displayed through video. The study used a pretest-posttest control group design to determine any effects of the training. Comparing gain scores across the experimental and control groups indicated the training was effective (F=78.907, p < .001). Trainings featuring video, practice, and feedback may be an effective way to promote consistency in the ways in which communication partners, such as peers, are interpreting the behaviors of individuals with multiple disabilities who are presymbolic. Interpreting such behaviors consistently is a necessary precursor to responding to the behaviors consistently. Responding to behaviors consistently, in turn, may support the development of conventional, symbolic language. Future research should build upon this initial step by evaluating trainings focused on teaching both identification of and responsivity to the communicative behaviors of school-aged and older individuals with multiple disabilities within the evaluative context of face-to-face interactions between partners and those individuals.