A Scoping Review of AAC Research Conducted in Segregated School Settings
Research in Developmental Disabilities
Iacono, T., Douglas, S. N., et al. (2022).
Research in Developmental Disabilities, 120, 104141.
This systematic review investigates the effects of school-based augmentative and alternative communication interventions on communication and academic outcomes in children.
Not stated
2000 to August 2020
Peer-reviewed articles
167
Findings demonstrated gains across various domains for school-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) therapy for children. Gains were seen in the areas of pragmatic functions (e.g. object requests), social skills (e.g. initiation of and response to communication, turn-taking, and social interactions with peers), expressive and receptive language. For interventions including multiple forms of AAC, improvements were noted in verb and noun production, multi-symbol productions, semantic relationships, and use of grammatical morphemes. In regards to academic skills, most included studies investigated the impact of AAC on literacy, with noted improvements in phoneme and letter identification and matching, word recognition, spelling, written story reading, and narrative skills. Limited evidence was found for positive impacts of AAC treatment on numeracy, mathematics, and on-task behaviors. Limitations to this review include reduced methodological rigor and small sample sizes of included studies. Further research is indicated.
