Aided AAC systems show advantages over manual signs for acquiring requests, and motor imitation and matching skills predict manual sign acquisition¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on a source with no registered publication record (a web page, book or unpublished report). It is kept because 3 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Children with autism showed a tendency to acquire PE responses more easily and rapidly than signed responses. → Nam 2018 q2 i? Motor imitation and matching skills appear to be prerequisites for acquisition of manual signs. → Nam 2018 (2)

Evidence¶

Nam 2018¶

Nam, S., Kim, J., & Sparks, S. (2018). An Overview of Review Studies on Effectiveness of Major AAC Systems for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Including Autism. The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, 7(2). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1185374

q2 · i? · review · r2

Overview of the Nam and Hwang (2016) review of three empirical studies comparing PE and manual sign training with mands acquisition as the dependent variable; the direction is stated as a tendency, not a definitive result.

"The review indicated a tendency that children with autism acquire PE responses more easily and rapidly than signed responses."

Nam 2018 (2)¶

Nam, S., Kim, J., & Sparks, S. (2018). An Overview of Review Studies on Effectiveness of Major AAC Systems for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Including Autism. The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, 7(2). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1185374

q2 · i? · review · r2

The article attributes the prerequisite relationship to the Gregory, DeLeon, and Richman (2009) study, which assessed existing matching and motor-imitation skills of children with autism and intellectual disability and found these skills prerequisite for learning manual signs.

"Both motor imitation and matching skills seem prerequisites for acquisition of manual signs based on the study by Gregory, DeLeon, and Richman (2009)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Autism Spectrum Disorder — population: instruction studied with autistic learners, not a comparison with non-autistic learners

Related Claims¶

• Individuals with developmental disabilities tend to prefer speech-generating devices over picture exchange and manual signs, with substantial individual differences — related
• Review evidence shows no consistent differences between picture exchange and speech-generating devices for communication and request outcomes — related
• Heterogeneity across reviewed single-subject studies limits broad AAC comparisons, warranting more focused syntheses — related
• PECS and speech-generating devices produced larger effects than other picture-based AAC systems, which nonetheless showed small effects — related
• AAC interventions showed positive effects on all targeted behavioral outcomes, with greater effects for communication skills than other skill categories — related
• Aided AAC interventions had large effects on targeted behavioral outcomes in individuals with ASD, per a meta-analysis of 24 single-case studies — a broader claim this one bears on