Systematic Review of Interventions Involving Aided AAC Modeling for Children With Complex Communication Needs

American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Biggs, E. E., Carter, E. W., et al. (2018).

American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 123(5), 443-473.

This systematic review investigates the impact of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods on expressive communication outcomes in children and young adults with complex communication needs.

Tennessee Department of Education; Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education

Through October 2015

Peer-reviewed, experimental group designs; experimental single-case design studies

48

Four single-case studies investigating the efficacy of modeling augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) use to children and young adults with complex communication needs found positive or strong positive effects on communication behavior.

Package interventions combining modeling, prompting, direct instruction, and/or other multi-modal intervention strategies to teach augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) use to children and young adults with complex communication needs demonstrated effectiveness in improving expressive communication overall. Studies investigating different combinations of strategies within packaged interventions reported the following results: <ul> <li>Eight studies using multi-modal modeling of AAC use reported positive or strong positive results for ten of the investigated outcomes and mixed results for four of the investigated outcomes.</li> <li>Seven studies using prompts and modeling of AAC use reported positive or strong positive results for four of the investigated outcomes and mixed results for one of the investigated outcomes.</li> <li>Five studies using direct instruction and modeling of AAC use reported positive or strong positive results for six of the investigated outcomes and mixed results for one of the investigated outcomes.</li> <li>Eleven studies using prompts, direct instruction, and modeling of AAC use reported positive or strong positive results for eleven of the investigated outcomes and mixed results for two of the investigated outcomes.</li> </ul>