R1-A: Literacy Support Technologies for AAC Users

The goals for this project are to:

• Develop, implement, and evaluate a beginning literacy instructional program that is accessible to individuals with speech and motor impairments.
• Implement this program in state of the art technology (in partnership with Don Johnston Incorporated) and evaluate use of the technology with students who require AAC by classroom teachers, educational assistants, rehabilitation professionals, parents, etc.
• Develop and evaluate the effectiveness of resource materials that support parents and educational personnel who will use this computer-based instructional technology.

Progress to Date

• Developed a draft of the literacy instruction curriculum. The curriculum includes instruction in the following skills:
• Initial phoneme segmentation
• Sound blending
• Letter-sound correspondences
• Vocabulary building
• Single word decoding
• Shared reading activities.
It incorporates:
• Direct instruction to build phonological awareness skills and decoding skills; as well as
• Numerous opportunities for meaningful reading experiences.
• Implemented and evaluated the curriculum using a multiple baseline design with students (ages 3-15) who have significant speech impairments and use AAC and who are not yet reading. This research is currently in progress. To date all participants have demonstrated gains in their phonological awareness skills, letter sound correspondence skills, and single word decoding skills; they have all increased their participation in shared reading activities.

Next steps

The next steps on the project are as follows:

• Complete the evaluation of the beginning literacy instruction curriculum
• Finalize the curriculum and disseminate a hard copy version in partnership with Don Johnston Incorporated
• Implement this curriculum in state of the art technology and evaluate use of the technology with students who require AAC
• Develop and evaluate the effectiveness of resource materials that support parents and educational personnel who will use this computer-based instructional technology.

R1-B: Telework to Improve Employment Outcomes for AAC Users

This project will conduct three studies with goals to:

• Identify key barriers and supports to telework for AAC users
• Develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a model telework demonstration project in conjunction with industry and government partners
• Investigate the impact of web-based resource materials on the willingness of employers to hire individuals who use AAC

For more information about this project, contact David McNaughton.

R1-C: Specialized AAC Vocabulary Research

The goals of this research is to identify socially-valued vocabulary symbol sets that promote effective and efficient communication contexts and roles that are valued among adult AAC user populations and to make these vocabulary sets available to commercial manufacturers. We will implement a series of online focus groups to identify socially-valued adult vocabulary supports in six different relevant adult roles: 1) college students, 2) effective social networks across the age span, 3) personal assistant (care) managers , 4) parents/intimate partners, 5) sexuality, and 6) potential victims of a crime or abuse wishing to report the crime to police or in court.

For more information about this project, contact Diane Bryen.