Comparing Two Vocabulary Interventions for Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Area of Science:

• Speech and Language Pathology
• Developmental Disabilities Research
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Interventions

Background:

• Children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities often require specialized vocabulary interventions.
• Robust, high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices are utilized by many of these children.
• Comparing different intervention approaches is crucial for optimizing language development in this population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of two distinct vocabulary interventions for children using high-tech AAC.
• To evaluate a structured, explicit instruction approach versus a naturalistic, incidental teaching approach.
• To determine which intervention yields better vocabulary outcomes for early language learners with disabilities.

Main Methods:

• Employed an adapted alternating-treatments single-subject design over 9 weeks.
• Three participants using robust, high-tech AAC devices received weekly explicit instruction and incidental teaching sessions.
• Target vocabulary was assessed pre- and post-intervention to measure learning efficiency.

Main Results:

• All participating children successfully acquired vocabulary through both intervention methods.
• Vocabulary acquisition was consistently more efficient with the structured, explicit instruction intervention.
• Individual learning rates varied, but the trend favored explicit instruction across all participants.

Conclusions:

• Preliminary findings indicate that structured, explicit vocabulary instruction is superior to incidental teaching for early language learners using high-tech AAC.
• These results support the use of explicit methods to enhance vocabulary development in children with disabilities who rely on AAC.
• Further research is warranted to confirm these findings and explore long-term effects.