statement of the problem 1

Assignment #1 Statement of Problem

By:

Kristy Davies

EDD 9300

Methods of Inquiry

Nova Southeaster University

January 29, 2012

Statement of the Problem

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.