Transcript Slides from Departmental Presentation of Honors Research

AIDED LANGUAGE MODELING AND REQUESTING BEHAVIOR IN TWO PRESCHOOL
CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
LAURA COLGAN, B. S.; TRINA BECKER, M.S.; TINA K. VEALE, PH.D.
EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
Introduction
Responses
Data for Each Participant
Children with autism lack many essential skills required for effective interpersonal
communication (Hale, 2005).
Partial Response – Uses device to make request using 1-3 symbols
Participant 1: Partial and Full Responses
Percent of Total Responses
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems can compensate for the
impairment and disability patterns of individuals with severe expressive
communication disorders (Glennen & DeCoste, 1997).
Children using AAC systems develop language differently than verbal communicators
(Goossens, Crain, & Elder, 1999; Sevick, Romski, Watkins, & Deffebach, 1995).
Language development in AAC users requires communication partners to illustrate
the functional and interactive uses of the AAC system (Goossens, Crain, & Elder,
1999; Sevick, Romski, Watkins, & Deffebach, 1995).
Drager et. al (2006) found ALM to be an effective intervention to increase symbol
production and comprehension, as well as maintaining the production and
comprehension skills developed with the intervention strategy for two preschoolers
with autism.
Research Questions
Is aided language modeling (ALM) effective in teaching preschool children with
autism to produce four-symbol requests on an AAC device?
120%
Prompted Response – “What do you want?” “Show/Tell me.”
100%
Spontaneous Response – No prompt before request
80%
Partial Responses
60%
Aided language modeling was effective in teaching four-symbol requests in
both subjects.
40%
Both subjects increased the number of responses using four symbols and
decreased the number of responses using one to three symbols.
0%
B1 B2 B3 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 W1W2
Set
Participant 2: Partial and Full Responses
100%
Strengths and Limitations
80%
Partial Responses
60%
Full Responses
Limitations: Low number of subjects; possible error in data collection by two
clinicians
20%
0%
B1 B2 B3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Need for Future Research
9 W1 W2
Participant 1: Spontaneous vs. Prompted
Responses
Subjects
•Limited to no functional speech
30
25
Responses
•Age 5 years, 7 months
20
Spontaneous
Prompted
15
10
B1 B2 B3 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 W1 W2
Set
Participant 2: Spontaneous vs. Prompted
Responses
Methodology
ABA single subject design
30
Clinicians modeled 30 four-symbol requests on AAC device per set
Baseline and withdrawal conditions were implemented before and after intervention
Inter-observer agreement calculated for 24% of the sets for Participant 1 (86%) and
21% of the sets for Participant 2 (91%)
Responses
25
Prompts used to elicit responses were recorded
What are the effects of ALM upon other communicative functions in children
with autism?
20
Spontaneous
Prompted
15
Selected References
Drager, K. D. R., Postal, V. J., Caroolus, L. (2006). The effect of aided language
modeling on symbol comprehension and production in two preschoolers with
autism. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15, 112-125.
0
•Established AAC users
What would results indicate given larger number of subjects?
How does ALM affect functional communication in children with other types of
developmental disabilities?
5
•Normal hearing and vision acuity
Partial and full responses made by the subjects were recorded
Strengths: Controlled for researcher bias; controlled for Hawthorne effect;
inter-observer agreement
40%
Set
•Twin girls with moderate to severe autism
Aided language modeling was not effective in increasing the amount of
spontaneous requests for both subjects.
Aided language modeling was not effective in decreasing the amount of
prompts for both subjects.
120%
Is ALM effective in teaching preschool children with autism to decrease the production
of partial requests on an AAC device?
Is ALM effective in decreasing the number of prompts necessary for AAC users to
make requests?
Conclusions
Full Responses
20%
Percent of Total Responses
Aided language modeling (ALM) is an intervention strategy for AAC users that
engages the child in interactive play and involves models of simultaneous vocalization
and functional usage of AAC symbols (Drager, Postal, & Carrolus, 2006).
Full Response – Uses device to make request using 4 symbols
Glennen, S. L., DeCoste, D. C. (1997). Handbook of augmentative and alternative
communication. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
Goossens, C., Crain, S. S., Elder, P. S. (1999). Engineering the preschool
environment for interactive symbolic communication: 18 months to 5 years
developmentally. Birmingham, AL: Southeast Augmentative Communication
Conference Publications.
Hale, C. M. (2005). Brief report: The relationship between discourse deficits and
autism symptomatology. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35, 519524.
10
5
0
B1 B2 B3 1
2
3
4
5
Set
6
7
8
9 W1 W2
Sevick, R. A., Romski, M. A., Watkins, R. V., Deffebach, K. P. (1995). Adult partneraugmented communication input to youth with mental retardation using the System
for Augmenting Language (SAL). American Speech-Language-Hearing Association,
38, 902-912.