Teaching Children who use AAC to Produce Rule-Based Semantic-Syntactic Relations

项目总结/摘要 在美国，每1,000人中约有8人（> 240万人）需要辅助和替代治疗 交流（AAC），以及令人惊讶的高比例-约24% -学前言语语言 病理学家（SLP）的病例量包括需要AAC的儿童。许多使用AAC的儿童有接受能力， 语言概况表明潜在的使用生成语言。然而，即使孩子们使用 AAC具有较强的接受性语言特征，但表达性语言往往较差 成果。这一系列研究的长期目标是确定干预方法，改善 使用AAC的儿童的表达性语言缺陷，这是NIDCD使命要解决的一个目标 与有交流障碍的个体相关的生物医学和行为问题。的 建议的项目包括两个具体目标：目标1是评估辅助AAC建模的效果 通过对比目标对两项语义-句法关系的生产性使用的干预（例如， Aim 2侧重于评估参与者的能力， 将学习推广到未经训练的语义-句法关系。前期治疗相对较强的患儿 理解水平（即，TACL-3上的平均值的> 1.5 SD）将被包括在研究中。据预测 所有的孩子都能在产生语法正确的信息方面有所收获。一个 实验控制的单个受试者，跨目标和参与者设计的多个探针将用于 评估结果，并使用模拟建模分析来衡量以下指标的统计学显著性： 每个参与者的进步。共有16名使用AAC的儿童（4-5岁）将参加。每个孩子都将 指导使用三种语义-句法关系和三种额外的泛化措施。的 具有对比目标干预的辅助AAC建模将包括可逆目标的模型（例如，狗 Bites Pig; Pig Bites Dog）。拟议审计咨询委员会研究的创新 包括：（1）教孩子们把口语“映射”到AAC设备上;（2）教语法规则， AAC人群中很大程度上被忽视的区域;（3）强调词序，这是特别有问题的 使用AAC的儿童该项目的成果将对干预措施产生直接影响， 作为更大和更精细（R 01）干预研究的基础。

Project Summary/Abstract Approximately 8 per 1,000 people in the U.S. (> 2.4 million) require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and surprisingly high percentage - about 24% - of preschool speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) caseloads consists of children who need AAC. Many children using AAC have receptive language profiles indicating the potential to use generative language. However, even when children who use AAC possess relatively strong receptive language profiles, they frequently have poor expressive language outcomes. The long-term aim of this line of research is to identify intervention approaches that ameliorate the expressive language deficits of children who use AAC, a goal well-suited to the NIDCD's mission to address biomedical and behavioral problems associated with individuals who have communication disorders. The proposed project is comprised of two specific aims: Aim 1 is to evaluate the effect of an aided AAC modeling with contrastive targets intervention on the productive use of two-term semantic- syntactic relations (e.g., action-object) by preschoolers who use AAC, and Aim 2 focuses on evaluating the participants' ability to generalize learning to untrained semantic-syntactic relations. Children with relatively strong pre-treatment comprehension levels (i.e., > 1.5 SD of the mean on the TACL-3) will be included in the study. It is predicted that all children will make at least some gains with producing syntactically correct messages. An experimentally controlled single subject, multiple probe across targets and participants design will be used to evaluate outcomes, and a Simulated Modeling Analysis will be used to measure the statistical significance of each participant's progress. A total of 16 children who use AAC (ages 4-5) will participate. Each child will be instructed in the use of three semantic-syntactic relations with three additional generalization measures. The aided AAC modeling with contrastive targets intervention will include models of reversible targets (e.g., DOG BITES PIG; PIG BITES DOG) provided on the child's AAC device. Innovations for the proposed AAC study include: (1) teaching children to 'map' spoken language onto AAC devices; (2) teaching syntactic rules, an area largely ignored with AAC populations; and (3) emphasizing word order, which is particularly problematic for children using AAC. The outcomes of this project will have immediate implications for intervention and will serve as the basis for larger and more refined (R01) intervention studies.