Gender Differences in Language Samples

Language samples from 10 adults using an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system were analyzed for gender differences. Participants (5 female; 5 male) were matched on device, experience, age, and education. Each participant was asked to describe the “cookie theft ” picture from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE; Goodglass & Kaplan, 1983). The language samples were analyzed in terms of lexical richness through calculating the total number of words and the total number of different words used along with performance measures including the frequency of different language representation methods; average communication rate; mean length of utterances (MLU-m). Preliminary results indicate the presence of gender differences in favor of males for lexical richness, and performance. However, both genders used language representation methods with similar frequencies. Clinical implications suggest that intervention strategies may need to be accommodated for gender to ensure that females using AAC receive the same opportunities and optimize communication