Teaching VOCA use as a communicative repair strategy.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Disabilities
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
• Communication Sciences

Background:

• Students with developmental disabilities often use prelinguistic behaviors to communicate.
• Communication breakdowns occur when listeners do not attend to these prelinguistic signals.
• Alternative communication methods can help repair these breakdowns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To teach students with developmental disabilities to use a voice-output communication aid (VOCA) to repair communication breakdowns.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of VOCA intervention for improving communication repair strategies.

Main Methods:

• A multiple-baseline design across subjects was employed.
• Intervention involved teaching two students with developmental disabilities to use a VOCA.
• Training occurred during naturalistic routines (morning snack time) to facilitate requesting preferred items.

Main Results:

• Both students successfully learned to use the VOCA to repair communication breakdowns.
• VOCA use extended beyond breakdown repair, with students initiating requests proactively.
• The intervention effectively supplemented prelinguistic communication with an additional request method.

Conclusions:

• VOCA intervention is an effective strategy for teaching communication repair to students with developmental disabilities.
• Supplementing prelinguistic communication with VOCA enhances communicative competence and request initiation.
• This approach offers a valuable alternative for students facing communication challenges.