Communication Success and AAC: A Model of Symbol Acquisition

描述（由申请人提供）：大多数儿童从前符号过渡（例如，手势和发声）到符号（例如，在生命的第一年，沟通。这种过渡使儿童能够更有效地交流，并导致语言习得的进一步发展。促进这种转变的确切机制仍然没有完全理解，尽管社会互动理论描述了影响早期单词学习的内源性和环境因素。对于许多发育迟缓的儿童，包括自闭症儿童来说，向符号交流的过渡是有风险的。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沟通（AAC）进行沟通。这些形式可以包括标志、图片选择和/或语音输出通信辅助（VOCA）。虽然使用AAC学龄前儿童正在增加，很少有证据表明存在联系的具体儿童和环境变量的沟通成果。学习AAC的儿童呈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进行差异化干预或解释结果。我们假设，许多变量可能涉及到沟通的结果，一个孩子的代表能力-如认知发展，理解，符号游戏，和语言前的沟通水平-是一个重要的预测沟通的结果。此外，我们假设这个预测因子的影响是由社会环境提供的支持和输入量介导的。通过一项纵向研究，我们建议测试预测和中介变量和三个不同的结果之间的假设关系-符号词汇的发展，沟通的成功，和沟通修复过程中的符号替换。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沟通。单独的分析将完成与自闭症谱系障碍儿童的队列，以确定在何种程度上，我们的模型适用于这个重要的亚组的符号沟通的发展。这项拟议中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的最大数据集。这项研究有可能通过确定对AAC干预措施反应的潜在预测因素来改善对这些儿童的评估和干预措施。我们对儿童学习AAC的关注将通过记录在学习言语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来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.