Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) Assessment Sourcebook

Alexa Okrainec

Brandon University

2003

AAC - Definition

• “An area of clinical practice that attempts to compensate (either temporarily or permanently) for the impairment and disability of individuals with severe expressive communication disorders” (ASHA, 1989, p. 107).

Statement of the Problem

• Students with limited speech/nonverbal: a low-incidence population.

• Only two formal AAC assessment tools currently available - Mental Measurements Yearbook:

1. Analyzing the Communication Environment (Rowland & Schweigert, 1993),

2. INteraction Checklist for Augmentative Communication Revised Edition (Bolton & Dashiell, 1991).

The Problem (continued)

• Available tools focus on limited, specific aspects of communication (e.g., the environment, interaction).

• No new formal tools since 1993.• An older formal tool, Comprehensive

Screening Tool for Determining Optimal Communication Mode (House & Rogerson, 1984), has been out of print since 2001.

Current Practice

2003 Omnibus Survey Caseload Report: SLP • 50.8% of school Speech-Language

Pathologists serve students who are nonverbal & require AAC, and

• School clinicians on average have 4.8 clients requiring AAC services on their caseloads (ASHA, 2003).

Implication. Clinicians require assessment tools to work effectively with these students.

Current Practice (cont’d)

• “there are few assessment protocols for evaluation in AAC. Practitioners tend to adopt models from the literature…and tend to develop their own protocols for assessment” (Huer, 1997, p. 25).

• Questions: What are the protocols described in the literature? What protocols have practitioners developed on their own?

Research Objectives

• To locate informal assessment strategies and techniques published in books, journals/newsletters, or on the web over the past 10-15 years.

• To develop a reference guide listing these informal tools and AAC assessment strategies.

Target Population

• AAC assessment tools and strategies suitable for use with children birth to age 21.– Early intervention is desirable, and– Students requiring AAC can attend school until

age 21.

Research Procedures

• The Reference Manager/End Note software will be used to manage the bibliography and assist with sorting and coding the available references.

• The Dreamweaver software will be used to develop a website to help practitioners locate references about informal AAC assessment procedures.

Sourcebook Entries

• For each assessment instrument, it may be useful to indicate:– Citation/source

– Purpose/Rationale

– Description of the instrument

– Comments about the instrument

– Descriptors

– References

(Freeze & Updike, 2000)

Classification of the AAC Tools

• Classification of the assessment tools will arise from the data. Some possible ways to classify the instruments are:

• 1. By type of tool (checklist, interview, rating scale, rubric, etc.) (Linn & Gronlund, 2000),

• 2. By domain of communication performance (receptive language, expressive language, speech, social interaction, literacy, environment etc.)

(Beukelman, 1998),

Sorting the AAC Tools

• Software packages could be used to sort the informal assessment tools that are identified by the search of the literature (e.g., Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) package).

Potential Research Outcomes:

• Gaps in the available assessment strategies may be identified,

• New tools may be developed,

• Existing tools may be revised or standardized to better meet the needs of children living with communicative disorders.

Early Project Status

Information gathered from:1. Practitioners in the field – Rehabilitation

Centre for Children, I Can Centre, SET-BC2. ERIC Search (1966-2003/9)Search terms: • “augmentative and alternative communication”

AND • “assessment” OR “evaluation”.Yielded 123 references for consideration.

AAC Assessment Tools Located– To date, informal tools have been located for:

• Gestural Communication• Evaluation of Programs and Services• Assessing use of a Speech Generating

Device (SGD)• Assessing the Environment• Determining the Need for Assistive

Technology

AAC Assessment Tools Located

– To date, informal tools have been located for:

• Conducting Culturally Inclusive Assessments

• General Assessment

• Screening and Intake

• Literacy

AAC Assessment Tools Located

– To date, informal tools have been located for:

• Evaluation of Parent Training

• Language & Communication

• Social Networks

• Comprehensibility of speech

AREA: Gestural Communication

– Gesture Dictionary (Beukelman & Mirenda, 1998), and

– Checklist of Communicative Functions and Nonsymbolic Forms (Siegel-Causey & Wetherby, 1993).

AREA: Evaluation of Programs & Services.

• Communication Supports Checklist (for Programs serving individuals with severe disabilities)

I. Overall support for communication

II. Assessment Practices, Goal-Setting Practices

III. Team Competencies

• Communication Supports Checklist – Action Plan

(McCarthy & Coauthors, 1998).

AREA: Assessing Use of a Speech Generating Device (SGD)

• A. Forms for Teaching Target Skills• B. Forms for Teaching an Introduction

Strategy: 1. Baseline Data Collection Form, 2. Instructional Data Collection Form, 3. Generalization Data Collection Form, 4. Consumer Feedback Questionnaire, 5. Facilitator Feedback Questionnaire

• C. Forms for Teaching Nonobligatory Turns• D. Forms for Teaching Partner-Focused

Questions

(Light & Binger, 1998).

AREA: Assessing the Environment

• Home Questionnaire (also called the Home Inventory)

– Solicits information about the child which is used to plan messages and activities specific to the child.

(Hough & Coauthors, 1994)

AREA: Screening

• Augmentative Communication Inventory

– Screens: initiation of communication, making choices, modes of communication, motor responses and switch use, equipment in use, pragmatic skills, display set-up, and target objectives

– Measures progress, completed twice annually.

(Hough & Coauthors, 1994).

AREA: Intake

• Intake Questionnaire for Augmentative and Alternative Communication – A set of intake questionnaires provides the team

with a starting point in the assessment process.

(Manitoba Education & Training, 1995)

AREA: Need for Assistive Technology

• Assistive Technology Consideration Quick Wheel (AT Quick Wheel)Considers the student’s need for AT for:

communication, reading, learning/studying, math, motor aspects of writing, computer access

as well ascomposing written material, mobility, activities of daily living, control of the environment, position & seating, vision, hearing, and recreation.

(ILIAD IDEA Partnership and Penny Reed (TAM Division). ( 2002).

AREA: Conducting Culturally Inclusive Assessments

• Culturally Inclusive Assessments for Children Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication– I. Self-Assessment: Extent of Multicultural

Competencies– II. Assessment of Communication Needs– III. Capability Assessment– IV. Technology Assessment

(Huer, 1997)

AREA: General Assessment

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Assessment– A hierarchy of assessment steps:

1. Determining Preferences, 2. Determining Reinforcibility, 3. Determining Signal/Mode of Communication, 4. Indicating Desire, 5. Indicating Choice between Two Objects, 6. Indicating Choice among Four Objects, 7. Indicating Choice as Depicted by Two Pictures, 8. Indicating Choice as Depicted by Four Pictures

(Manitoba Education & Training, 1995)

AREA: General Assessment

• Preschool AAC Checklist– Considers: AAC system components, symbol system,

vocabulary used for expression and vocabulary organization, making choices, physical abilities, classroom independence, communicative interactions, use of visual symbols, special AAC strategies, emergent literacy, math readiness, music/art/graphics, team meetings, strategies used to gather vocabulary, classroom strategies to increase communication, oral speech strategies, modifications needed for testing, tests given .

(Henderson, 1992)

AREA: Literacy

• Phonological Processing & Literacy AssessmentAssessment Tasks:

I. Retrieval of Whole-word PhonologyII. Phonological RecodingIII. Phoneme Awareness

(Vandervelden & Siegel, 1999)

AREA: Parent Training

• Outcomes in AAC– A strategy for evaluating the effectiveness of a

parent training program• Documents home use of a communication system

• Evaluates the parent’s skill with the child’s AAC device, and the parents interaction patterns with the child AAC user.

(Bruno & Dribbon, 1998)

AREA: Language & Communication

• Beginning Augmentative Communication Skills – Outlines a sequence of 32 augmentative

communication skills :

Early Skills: Shared Referent, Shared Interaction/Turn taking, Calling AttentionLater Skills: Asking Why? Indicating past or future in a general sense, Responding to yes/no questions that relate to characteristic of items, Delivering Messages.

(Burkhart, 1993)

AREA: Language & Communication

• Measurement of Growth in Communication Skills for the Child Using Augmentative Communication– Periodic language sample to reveal functional use of

language– Codes mode of communication and type of utterance,

records the selections that comprise an utterance, notes intelligible utterances

– Option to count various language behaviours(Burkhart, 1993)

AREA: Social Interactions

• Social Networks: A communication inventory for individuals with complex communication needs and their communication partners– Looks at “Circles of Communication Partners”

as well as strategies that support interaction.

(Blackstone & Berg, 2003)

AREA: Comprehensibility of Speech

• Index of Augmented Speech Comprehensibility in Children (I-ASCC)– Examines how well an individual’s message

can be understood in the natural context.• Varies the listening context (no cue vs. semantic

cue) as well as the type of listener (familiar vs. unfamiliar) to assess speech comprehensibility.

(Dowden, 1997)

Need to Learn More About…

• Augmentative & Alternative Communication in Pres-school Programs: Pre-school Teacher Survey (Johnston & coauthors, 2003)

• A Universal Logging Format for Augmentative Communication (Lesher & Coauthors, 2000),

• Language Activity Monitor (Hill & Romich, 1999),

Need to Learn More About…

• Wisconsin Sensorimotor Pointing Assessment (Huebner & coauthors, 1995),

• Preschool Checklist: Integration of Children with Severe Disabilities (Drinkwater & Demchak, 1995),

• Augmentative Communication Profile (Haney & Quinlisk-Gill, 1988),

…and others…

Need to Find References For…

• The Student Access Map: Ensuring access to the general curriculum (?Dacey, 2002),

• Environmental Observation Guide (?Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative, 1998),

• AAC Evaluation Worksheet (Synergy, no date),

• Assessment for Semantic Compaction (Elder, no date, ?source)

…and others….

Summary

• Informal tools and strategies for AAC assessment are available, for various areas of practice.

• There is a fairly wide range of sources for AAC assessment strategies.

• To date, tools for examining the receptive language of AAC users have been difficult to locate.

• This research remains in progress. Update to be provided.

References

Link to list of references (Word Document)