Comprehension: an overlooked component in augmented language development.

PURPOSE: Despite the importance of children's receptive skills as a foundation for later productive word use, the role of receptive language traditionally has received very limited attention since the focus in linguistic development has centered on language production. For children with significant developmental disabilities and communication impairments, augmented language systems have been devised as a tool both for language input and output. The role of both speech and symbol comprehension skills is emphasized in this paper.
METHOD: Data collected from two longitudinal studies of children and youth with severe disabilities and limited speech serve as illustrations in this paper. The acquisition and use of the System for Augmenting Language (SAL) was studied in home and school settings. Communication behaviors of the children and youth and their communication partners were observed and language assessment measures were collected.
RESULTS: Two patterns of symbol learning and achievement--beginning and advanced--were observed. Extant speech comprehension skills brought to the augmented language learning task impacted the participants' patterns of symbol learning and use.
CONCLUSIONS: Though often overlooked, the importance of speech and symbol comprehension skills were underscored in the studies described. Future areas for research are identified.