A Pilot Study Comparing AAC Vocabulary Usage Patterns Based on User Experience

A pilot study with 4 participants compared augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) vocabulary usage patterns based on user experience. The cookie theft picture was administered to obtain a language sample. Samples were collected from two novice (3 weeks experience) and two expert (3 months experience) individuals who rely on high technology AAC systems. Data were collected using the Universal Language Activity Monitor (U-LAM) software and a video recorder for analysis. Reliability of the language sample analysis process was 93% for utterance segmentation. Frequency of core vocabulary and frequency of vocabulary based on language representation methods were calculated for both novices and experts. Novices were found to use significantly more spelling and word prediction, while experts were found to use rate enhancement strategies with a significantly higher frequency. The findings report the differences between novices and experts in vocabulary usage and discuss the clinical implications of this pilot study’s results