The Performance of Korean children with intellectual disabilities on dynamic aac technologies with different language organizations

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the performance of Korean children with normal and intellectual disabilities on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems with different language organizations. Methods: Thirty-nine children participated in this study: 13 children with intellectual disabilities (ID) age 4 to 6, 13 chronological age-matched normally developing children (CA-N), and 13 language age-matched normally developing children (LA-N). Participants were asked to locate AAC vocabulary items using either category-based or place-based language organization. They performed two tasks: An accuracy testing task and a preference testing task. The 27 items (18 items for accuracy test and 9 items for preference test) were selected from lists of words frequently used by young children. All vocabulary items were concrete nouns. Results: There were significant interaction effects in the groups (ID, CA-N, and LA-N) and types of AAC language organization (categorical vs. placed-related). The ID and LA-N groups showed significantly higher effects in the placed-related organization than categorical, while the CA-N group did not. There was no interaction effect among the three groups in the language organization preference test. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest considering the performance of ID children on different types of AAC vocabulary navigation using dynamic display AAC technologies. © 2015 Korean Academy of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.