Assignment
#1 Statement of Problem
By:
Kristy Davies
EDD 9300
Methods of Inquiry
Nova Southeaster
University
January 29, 2012
The Topic
The
field of Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) is very broad and
attempts to assist many individuals. Children who use AAC require extra assistance
since they cannot advocate for themselves. Teachers and families are required
to teach the children the necessary language available on their AAC as well as
know how to incorporate language into daily livings. A child’s AAC changes as maturation
and different developmental milestones are reached. Therefore, continuous
support is required for a child’s team (e.g. school professionals and family).
The Research Problem
Children
who use AAC do not have the appropriate support system in place in the home
setting. Parents are frequently left to figure out the communication method the
child is using on their own with minimal training. School professionals
tend to receive support from the speech language pathologist (SLP) and
assistive technology (AT) specialists. When training is provided to the
parents, it is performed outside of the home setting. Training outside of the
home setting does not assist in understanding the situations that occur outside
of school and in the family’s lives.
Background and Justification
Historically
parents have not received the necessary supports to help their children be
successful communicators (Parette, Brotherson, & Huer, 2000) and achieve
functional communication in the home setting. Family members are known to be
the most common communicators in a child’s life. Starble and colleagues (2005) noted, “parental
perspectives are not often fully accessible to professionals in many
intervention settings” (p.49). Parents feel
they lack the necessary information to provide their children successful
communication opportunities. They have
the large burden of figuring out how to implement and program the device, and where
to find the appropriate professionals (Starble et al., 2005) to help.
Even though a
child has a device, Bruno and Dribbon (1998) found that parents still perceive
the child’s primary mode of communication as speech, eye gaze, and/or sign
language. Therefore, more education is
needed to assist the families in understanding the benefits of devices, reduce
the fears, and increase their levels of comfort. Parents realize that they have difficulty
understanding their children using unaided modes of communication. Simply explaining terminology such as aided
versus unaided system are terms parents may be unfamiliar with. When
appropriate training is provided, as in Bruno and Dribbon’s (1998) study,
appropriate device use and positive interactions do occur. Parents’ perceptions positively changed as
well.
Deficiencies in the Evidence
Schools tend to
receive appropriate supports to assist children with AAC but those supports do
not generalize outside of the educational setting. Stiebel (1999) claimed there
were a “limited number of studies examining generalization” (p. 159). Supports
and resources are needed to create a better understanding of AAC device
expectations, as well as provide necessary training. Inappropriate device use
occurs when families are not involved and not trained properly. Parette and
colleagues (2000) discussed that families’ expectations tend to be high. They
“expect that once a device is provided to the child, communication will
immediately results. Family members may be unprepared for the responsibilities
of programming and learning to use devices, or for teaching their children how
to use them effectively” (187). Starble and colleagues (2005) found that
parental input is not generally available to the educational professionals.
It’s apparent
training and support is needed for families with children using AAC. Parents
desire to interact more with the SLP and they wish the SLP would provide more
of a “trainer/educator” role (Starble et al., 2005, p. 48). SLPs need to
advocate for the parents’ desired trainings and learn how to make time to allow
for trainings to occur. With AAC being such a large area, it’s critical that
families understand all terminology with the least amount of jargon used.
Audience
The audience is
support personnel for children who use AAC including their teachers, SLPs,
behaviorists and most importantly parents.
Parents are mostly impacted by the lack of support and training to
assist their children improve their language and communication skills.
References
Bruno, J. &
Dribbon, M. (1998). Outcomes in AAC: evaluating the effectiveness of a parent
training program. Augmentative and
Alternative Communication, 14, 59-70.
Parette, H.,
Brotherson, M. & Huer, M. (2000). Giving families a voice in augmentative
and alternative communication decision-making. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental
Disabilities, 35(2), 177-190.
Starble, A.,
Hutchins, T., Favro, M., Prelock, R., Bitner, B. (2005). Family-centered
intervention and satisfaction with AAC device training. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 27(1), 47-54.
Stiebel, D.
(1999). Promoting augmentative communication during daily routines: A parent
problem-solving intervention. Journal of
Positive Behavior Intervention,1.
p. 159-169.
