The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of Augmentative and Alternavite Communication(AAC) intervention using script on communication functions related interpersonal service in students with complex communication needs(CCN) enrolled in a ...
The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of Augmentative and Alternavite Communication(AAC) intervention using script on communication functions related interpersonal service in students with complex communication needs(CCN) enrolled in a special school vocational program.
The participants in this study were two second-year students enrolled in the vocational program of a special school with CCN, one with an intellectual disability and the other with mitochondrial muscle disease. Because they couldn’t communicate smoothly with spoken language, they needed AAC system. The design of study was the multiple probe baseline design across settings. Three different interpersonal service settings were a mock clothing store, a school cafe and a school library.
The intervention program was composed of the script activities and the least to most prompt hierarchy. A total of 18 scripts were developed with six scripts each for the mock clothing store, the school cafe, and the school library. Each script was designed to incorporate communication functions such as requesting information, comments, statements and organization device.
AAC aid in this study was an AAC app developed using MIT App Inventor. The AAC app had three pages for communication in three different settings including mock clothing store, school cafe and school library.
The results of the study are as follows. AAC intervention using scripts was effective in improving communication functions related interpersonal service of students with CCN in special school vocational programs in the mock clothing store, school cafe and school library. In addition, it was effective even when generalization was conducted by another vocational program teacher. The effect of the intervention was maintained even in the maintenance period one week after finishing the intervention.
These results show the possibililty of getting a job in interpersonal service settings of students with CCN in special school vocational programs.