Aided Language Measures: Establishing Observer Agreement for Communicators in Early Language Phases.

Area of Science:

• Speech and Language Pathology
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Reliable measures for spoken language development are abundant, but lacking for children using graphic symbols.
• Children with Down syndrome aged 3-5 years utilize aided AAC for communication.
• The Graphic Symbol Utterance and Sentence Development Framework provides a basis for new language measures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the interobserver agreement (IOA) and within-observer agreement of 13 measures for children using aided AAC.
• To determine the reliability of measures based on the Graphic Symbol Utterance and Sentence Development Framework.
• To take a first step in developing psychometrically sound measures for graphic symbol communicators.

Main Methods:

• Four graduate students coded 13 language measures across 57 play-based sessions.
• Children with Down syndrome aged 3;0-5;11 (years;months) participated.
• Interobserver agreement (IOA) and within-observer agreement were calculated for each utterance.

Main Results:

• Acceptable levels of IOA and within-observer agreement were achieved across most measures.
• Most measures demonstrated high agreement, indicating reliability.
• Less experienced coders showed lower agreement on specific measures.

Conclusions:

• The study provides initial evidence for the reliable coding of measures based on the Graphic Symbol Utterance and Sentence Development Framework.
• These findings support the development of psychometrically sound tools for monitoring the expressive language progress of children using AAC.
• Further research is needed to refine these measures for diverse AAC users.