Communication Success and AAC: A Model of Symbol Acquisition

描述（由申请人提供）：大多数儿童在一岁前从前符号（如手势和发声）过渡到符号（如文字）交流。这种转变使孩子们能够更有效地交流，并导致语言习得的进一步发展。虽然社会互动主义理论描述了影响早期词汇学习的内生因素和环境因素，但促进这种转变的确切机制仍未被完全理解。对于包括自闭症在内的许多发育迟缓的儿童来说，过渡到符号交流是有风险的。当延迟持续到学龄前时，儿童经常被教导使用某种形式的辅助或替代交流（AAC）进行交流。这些形式可能包括标志、图片选择和/或语音输出通信辅助设备（VOCA）。虽然学龄前儿童使用AAC的情况正在增加，但很少有证据表明特定的儿童和环境变量与交流结果有关。学习AAC的儿童表现出非常不同的特征和历史，但没有现有的证据基础来指导研究人员或从业人员根据这些变量不同地应用干预措施或解释结果。我们假设，在与沟通结果相关的许多变量中，儿童的表征能力——如认知发展、理解、符号游戏和语言前沟通水平——是沟通结果的重要预测因素。此外，我们假设这种预测因子的影响是由社会环境提供的支持和投入的数量介导的。通过一项纵向研究，我们建议检验预测变量和中介变量与三种不同结果——符号词汇发展、交际成功和交际修复过程中的符号替代之间的假设关系。参与者将是100名患有发育障碍的幼儿和20名患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的幼儿，他们都将学习与AAC交流。我们将对自闭症儿童进行单独的分析，以确定我们的模型在多大程度上适用于这一重要亚群的符号交流发展。这项拟议的研究将产生迄今为止从幼儿学习AAC的前瞻性研究中收集到的最大数据集。这项研究可能通过确定对AAC干预反应的潜在预测因素来改善对这些儿童的评估和干预实践。我们对学习AAC的儿童的关注将通过记录在学习语言中观察到的过程在多大程度上也适用于学习其他符号模式，从而为符号化的理论解释提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Most children transition from presymbolic (e.g., gestures and vocalizations) to symbolic (e.g., words) communication during the first year of life. This transition enables children to communicate more efficiently and leads to further developments in language acquisition. The exact mechanisms that facilitate this transition are still not fully understood, although social-interactionist theories describe both endogenous and environmental factors affecting early word learning. The transition into symbolic communication is at risk for many children with developmental delays including autism. When delays persist into preschool ages, children are frequently taught to communicate with some form of augmentative or alternative communication (AAC). These forms may include signs, picture selection, and/or voice output communication aids (VOCA). Although use of AAC by preschool children is increasing, little evidence exists linking specific child and environmental variables to communication outcomes. Children learning AAC present with very different characteristics and histories but there is no existing evidence base to guide researchers or practitioners in differentially applying interventions or interpreting results based on these variables. We hypothesize that, of the many variables that could relate to communication outcomes, a child's representational capacity- as indicated by cognitive development, comprehension, symbolic play, and prelinguistic communication level- is a significant predictor of communication outcomes. Further, we hypothesize that the effects of this predictor are mediated by the amounts of supports and input offered by the social environment. Through a longitudinal study, we propose to test hypothesized relationships between predictor and mediating variables and three different outcomes- symbolic vocabulary development, communication success, and symbol substitutions during communication repairs. Participants will be 100 young children with developmental disabilities and 20 young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), all of whom will be learning to communicate with AAC. Separate analyses will be completed with the cohort of children with ASD to determine the extent to which our model applies to symbolic communication development by this important subgroup. The proposed research would produce the largest data set collected thus far from a prospective study of young children learning AAC. This research is likely to improve assessment and intervention practices for these children by identifying potential predictors of response to AAC interventions. Our focus on children learning AAC will inform theoretical accounts of symbolization by documenting the extent to which processes observed in learning speech also apply to learning other symbolic modes.