High-Tech Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Individuals with IDD and Complex Communication Needs: A Meta-Analysis (Design Quality Review)

The attachment includes the description of the design quality review for the following paper: The use of mobile technology is ubiquitous and is rapidly increasing in novel use. The use of mobile apps as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is rapidly expanding, both in the community and in the research literature. This article reports the social-communication outcome results of a meta-analysis of single-case experimental research on the use of high-tech AAC with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder. Following inclusion determination, including excluding studies with poor design quality, raw data from 24 publications were extracted and included 89 A-B phase contrasts. Tau-U nonparametric, non-overlap effect size was used to aggregate the results across all studies for an omnibus and moderator analyses. Kendall’s S was calculated for confidence intervals, p-values, and standard error. The omnibus analysis indicated overall low to moderate positive effects on social-communication outcomes for high-tech AAC with people with IDD.The contents of this manuscript were developed under the Preparation of Leaders in Autism Across the Lifespan grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Grant No. H325D110046)