Developing Communicative Competence: Importance of AAC for Children with ASD

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication development, social interactions, and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors, interests, and/or activities. While the range of communicative abilities varies depending on the individual, nearly forty percent of children with ASD have absent or nonfunctional speech and language skills (Johnson, 2004). The current review synthesizes communication intervention studies involving the use of speech generating devices (SGD) for children with ASD. The documented results from the empirical studies evaluated are summarized. SUMMARY: The overall estimated prevalence of ASD is approximately 16.9 per 1,000 (1 in 59) children in the United States, which is a 15 percent increase in national prevalence since 2012 (CDC, 2018). Children with ASD are frequently identified and provided services in schools according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) criteria. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education the percentage of children ages 3 through 5 with ASD served under IDEA, Part B was 10.1% and for children ages 6 through 21 with ASD it was 9.6% (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). An effective intervention option for these individuals is the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system to facilitate functional communication as well as support expressive and receptive language acquisition. To review the literature available in the field, this report summarizes the results of thirty research studies conducted between 1995 and 2018 assessing the ability of children with ASD to learn to communicate functionally using a speech-generating device (SGD), which is a specific AAC system. LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1. The participant will be able to identify characteristics of ASD. 2. The participant will be able to understand the benefits of AAC use for individuals with ASD. 3. The participant will be able to understand the impact of SGD use (a type of AAC device) on communication development for individuals with ASD