Hannah Waddington1, Jeff Sigafoos2, Giulio E Lancioni3, Mark F O'Reilly4, Larah van der Meer1, Amarie Carnett1, Michelle Stevens1, Laura Roche1, Flaviu Hodis1, Vanessa A Green1, Dean Sutherland5, Russell Lang6, Peter B Marschik7. 1. School of Educational Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. 2. School of Educational Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. Electronic address: jeff.sigafoos@vuw.ac.nz. 3. Department of Neuroscience and Sense Organs, University of Bari, Bari, Italy. 4. Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. 5. School of Health Sciences, College of Education, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. 6. Clinic for Autism Research, Evaluation, and Support, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA. 7. Institute of Physiology, Research Unit iDN-Interdisciplinary Developmental Neuroscience, IN:spired, Center for Physiological Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have limited or absent speech and might therefore benefit from learning to use a speech-generating device (SGD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate a procedure aimed at teaching three children with ASD to use an iPad(®)-based SGD to make a general request for access to toys, then make a specific request for one of two toys, and then communicate a thank-you response after receiving the requested toy. METHOD: A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to determine whether systematic instruction involving least-to-most-prompting, time delay, error correction, and reinforcement was effective in teaching the three children to engage in this requesting and social communication sequence. Generalization and follow-up probes were conducted for two of the three participants. RESULTS: With intervention, all three children showed improvement in performing the communication sequence. This improvement was maintained with an unfamiliar communication partner and during the follow-up sessions. CONCLUSION: With systematic instruction, children with ASD and severe communication impairment can learn to use an iPad-based SGD to complete multi-step communication sequences that involve requesting and social communication functions.
BACKGROUND: Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have limited or absent speech and might therefore benefit from learning to use a speech-generating device (SGD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate a procedure aimed at teaching three children with ASD to use an iPad(®)-based SGD to make a general request for access to toys, then make a specific request for one of two toys, and then communicate a thank-you response after receiving the requested toy. METHOD: A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to determine whether systematic instruction involving least-to-most-prompting, time delay, error correction, and reinforcement was effective in teaching the three children to engage in this requesting and social communication sequence. Generalization and follow-up probes were conducted for two of the three participants. RESULTS: With intervention, all three children showed improvement in performing the communication sequence. This improvement was maintained with an unfamiliar communication partner and during the follow-up sessions. CONCLUSION: With systematic instruction, children with ASD and severe communication impairment can learn to use an iPad-based SGD to complete multi-step communication sequences that involve requesting and social communication functions.
Authors: Jennifer Yohanna Ferreira de Lima Antão; Acary Souza Bulle Oliveira; Renata Thaís de Almeida Barbosa; Tânia Brusque Crocetta; Regiani Guarnieri; Claudia Arab; Thaís Massetti; Thaiany Pedrozo Campos Antunes; Alan Patrício da Silva; Ĺtalla Maria Pinheiro Bezerra; Carlos Bandeira de Mello Monteiro; Luiz Carlos de Abreu Journal: Clinics (Sao Paulo) Date: 2018-11-29 Impact factor: 2.365