Expanding Communication Modalities and Functions for Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Secondary Analysis of a Peer Partner Speech-Generating Device Intervention

Collateral Effects of the Tell Me MORE! Intervention on the Joint Reminiscing of Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to analyze secondary data from three mother-child dyads in order to evaluate how family photographs and training in naturalistic strategies affected the way mothers reminisce with their children with autism spectrum disorders.

METHOD

A secondary analysis (i.e., collateral effects) of a single-case dataset was conducted to assess the impact of family photographs and training in naturalistic strategies on the selected variables.

RESULTS

The introduction of family photographs showed positive effects on the mother's reminiscing style and the child's memory responses across all dyads. Furthermore, additional improvements were observed in these areas after training and coaching in the target strategies.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates the positive impact of using family photographs and naturalistic based strategies in joint-reminiscing conversations for mothers and children with autism spectrum disorder. The intervention improved the mothers reminiscing style and child's memory responses, highlighting the potential value of parent-implemented interventions, especially those based on naturalistic strategies, in supporting individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their caregivers.

Effects of a Systematic Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention Using a Speech-Generating Device on Multistep Requesting and Generic Small Talk for Children With Severe Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention using a speech-generating device (SGD) on acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of multistep requesting and generic small talk in three children with severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between the ages of 7 and 13 years. Method A multiple-baseline design across participants combined with a posttreatment multiple-generalization-probe design was used to assess acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of target communicative behaviors with the experimenter and the participants' familiar communication partners (FCPs). Intervention was composed of systematic instruction in the use of an SGD using least-to-most prompting, constant time delay, error correction, and reinforcement. Results Visual analysis established a strong functional relationship between the independent variable and the two dependent variables (i.e., requesting preferred activities, engaging in generic small talk) for all three participants. Effect size indicator analyses corroborated these findings, indicating strong effects for performing multistep requesting and medium effects for engaging in generic small talk. All participants were able to generalize the acquired communicative behaviors to request new and untrained snacks and activities and engage in generic small talk with FCPs who were not part of the training. Maintenance of acquired communicative behaviors was demonstrated 3 weeks post completion of intervention. Conclusion This study provides preliminary evidence that AAC intervention using an SGD and incorporating least-to-most prompting, constant time delay, error correction, and reinforcement is effective in terms of multistep requesting and generic small talk behaviors in children with severe ASD. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16663630.

Hierarchy and Reliability of the Preschool Language Scales-Fifth Edition: Mokken Scale Analysis

Purpose This study examined the psychometric properties of the Preschool Language Scales-Fifth Edition (PLS-5 English) among preschool children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) families. Method The PLS-5 was administered individually to 169 3- to 4-year-old children enrolled in Head Start programs. We carried out a Mokken scale analysis (MSA), which is a nonparametric item response theory analysis, to examine the hierarchy among items and the reliability of test scores of the PLS-5 Auditory Comprehension (AC) and Expressive Communication (EC) scales. Results The PLS-5 EC items retained a moderate Mokken scale with the inclusion of all the items. On the other hand, the PLS-5 AC items formed a moderate Mokken scale only with the exclusion of five unscalable items. The latent class reliability coefficients for the AC and the EC scale scores were both above .90. Several items that violated the invariant item ordering assumption were found for both scales. Conclusions MSA can be used to examine the relationship between the latent language ability and the probability of passing an item with ordinal responses. Results indicate that for preschool children from low-SES families, it is appropriate to use the PLS-5 EC scale scores for comparing individuals' expressive language abilities; however, researchers and speech-language pathologists should be cautious when using the PLS-5 AC scale scores to evaluate individuals' receptive language abilities. Other implications of the MSA results are further discussed.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Supports for Language and Literacy in Preschool: Considerations for Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with Down syndrome and children with autism spectrum disorder have a range of speech abilities during preschool that impacts access to both language and literacy instruction. It is the responsibility of the speech-language pathologist to advocate for and provide intervention using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) through individualized assessment. This article provides a review of the literature supporting the use of AAC during preschool for both language and literacy development in children with Down syndrome and children with autism spectrum disorder who have limited speech. A small scale exploratory report is discussed to highlight differences in early literacy skills found in children in each group. Implications for AAC intervention during preschool to support both language and literacy are discussed.