Communication Success and AAC: A Model of Symbol Acquisition

沟通成功和 AAC：符号获取模型

• 批准号: 7760108
• 负责人: NANCY CAROLINE BRADY
• 金额: $ 34.37万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-03-08 至 2012-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7760108
• 关键词: Accounting; Achievement; Affect; Age; Area; Attention; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Bypass; Characteristics; Child; Child Development; Cognitive; Communication; Communications Media; Comprehension; Data Analyses; Data Set; Development; Developmental Delay Disorders; Developmental Disabilities; Down Syndrome; Educational process of instructing; Environmental Risk Factor; Etiology; Event; Failure; Foundations; Gestures; Home environment; Human Development; Impairment; Intervention; Language; Language Development; Learning; Life; Link; Longitudinal Studies; Manuals; Measures; Mediating; Mediation; Modeling; Neurologic; Nursery Schools; Outcome; Output; Participant; Play; Preschool Child; Printing; Process; Production; Prospective Studies; Recording of previous events; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Route; Schools; Social Environment; Speech; Speech Development; Subgroup; System; Testing; Vocabulary; Voice; alternative communication; autism spectrum disorder; base; cohort; communication aid; evidence base; experience; improved; innovation; interest; meetings; repaired; response; skills; social; success; theories; vocalization

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Most children transition from presymbolic (e.g., gestures and vocalizations) to symbolic (e.g., words) communication during the first year of life. This transition enables children to communicate more efficiently and leads to further developments in language acquisition. The exact mechanisms that facilitate this transition are still not fully understood, although social-interactionist theories describe both endogenous and environmental factors affecting early word learning. The transition into symbolic communication is at risk for many children with developmental delays including autism. When delays persist into preschool ages, children are frequently taught to communicate with some form of augmentative or alternative communication (AAC). These forms may include signs, picture selection, and/or voice output communication aids (VOCA). Although use of AAC by preschool children is increasing, little evidence exists linking specific child and environmental variables to communication outcomes. Children learning AAC present with very different characteristics and histories but there is no existing evidence base to guide researchers or practitioners in differentially applying interventions or interpreting results based on these variables. We hypothesize that, of the many variables that could relate to communication outcomes, a child's representational capacity- as indicated by cognitive development, comprehension, symbolic play, and prelinguistic communication level- is a significant predictor of communication outcomes. Further, we hypothesize that the effects of this predictor are mediated by the amounts of supports and input offered by the social environment. Through a longitudinal study, we propose to test hypothesized relationships between predictor and mediating variables and three different outcomes- symbolic vocabulary development, communication success, and symbol substitutions during communication repairs. Participants will be 100 young children with developmental disabilities and 20 young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), all of whom will be learning to communicate with AAC. Separate analyses will be completed with the cohort of children with ASD to determine the extent to which our model applies to symbolic communication development by this important subgroup. The proposed research would produce the largest data set collected thus far from a prospective study of young children learning AAC. This research is likely to improve assessment and intervention practices for these children by identifying potential predictors of response to AAC interventions. Our focus on children learning AAC will inform theoretical accounts of symbolization by documenting the extent to which processes observed in learning speech also apply to learning other symbolic modes.

描述（由申请人提供）：大多数儿童从天束（例如，手势和发声）过渡到生命第一年的象征性（例如，单词）通信。这种过渡使儿童能够更有效地交流，并导致语言获取方面的进一步发展。尽管社会互动主义理论描述了影响早期单词学习的内源性和环境因素，但促进这种过渡的确切机制仍未完全理解。对于包括自闭症在内的许多发育迟缓的儿童，过渡到象征性交流的风险。当延迟持续到学龄前时代，经常被教导要与某种形式的增强或替代交流（AAC）进行交流。这些表格可能包括标志，图片选择和/或语音输出通信辅助工具（VOCA）。尽管学龄前儿童使用AAC的使用正在增加，但很少有证据将特定的儿童和环境变量与沟通结果联系起来。儿童学习AAC的特征和历史非常不同，但是没有现有的证据基础可以指导研究人员或从业人员根据这些变量进行差异化采用干预措施或解释结果。我们假设，在许多可能与沟通结果有关的变量中，儿童的代表性能力 - 如认知发展，理解，符号游戏和前语言交流级别所表明的那样 - 是交流结果的重要预测指标。此外，我们假设该预测因子的效果是由社会环境提供的支持和投入的数量介导的。通过一项纵向研究，我们建议测试预测变量与中介变量之间的假设关系以及三种不同的结果 - 符号词汇发展，沟通成功和沟通维修期间的符号替代。参与者将是100名发育障碍的年幼儿童和20名自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的年幼儿童，他们将学习与AAC进行交流。将通过ASD的儿童队列完成单独的分析，以确定我们的模型在该模型中使用该重要亚组的符号通信开发的程度。拟议的研究将产生迄今为止对幼儿学习AAC的前瞻性研究收集的最大数据集。这项研究可能通过确定对AAC干预措施的反应预测指标来改善这些儿童的评估和干预措施。我们对学习AAC的孩子的关注将通过记录学习语音中观察到的过程的程度，也适用于学习其他符号模式，从而为象征化的理论说明提供了信息。