A Systematic Search and Appraisal of Intervention Characteristics Used to Develop Varied Communication Functions in Children With Autism Who Use Aided AAC
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Logan, K., Iacono, T., et al. (2022).
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 90, 101896.
This systematic review investigates the effects of different aided augmentative and alternative communication intervention components on social-communication function in children, younger than 18 years old, on the autism spectrum.
Not stated
January 1994 to February 2019
Single-case experimental design; control versus intervention group comparison study designs
18
Studies investigating aided augmentative and alternative communication intervention components found that interventions targeting acknowledgment of another person's communication and interventions involving answering a "wh" question regarding a visible, concrete item or image demonstrated moderate to large effect sizes in children on the autism spectrum. Two studies found fewer effects or no effects from interventions targeting more abstract "wh" questions.
Studies investigating aided augmentative and alternative communication intervention components found that naturalistic language interventions demonstrated small effects in children on the autism spectrum.
Higher dosages of aided augmentative and alternative communication interventions demonstrated a small positive effect size in children on the autism spectrum. The authors note that this conclusion should be considered preliminary due to data limitations.
Studies investigating aided augmentative and alternative communication intervention components reported benefits from time delay, prompting, and error correction strategies for teaching communication functions to children on the autism spectrum. The authors found a lack of research investigating environmental engineering strategies and modeling as a stand-alone strategy.
