A Case Study Of Using AAC To Improve Multiple Disabilities Children's Communication Ability

Communication ability is the way to code the information in an appropriate form,to convey information to the communicator,depending on the need to adjust the content,monitoring if it is sent out,checking whether communication partner receives and understands it.Communication ability is the social basis for a disabled child to live,study,spend leisure time.It is inevitable that people need to communicate with others in social life.Humans can use language,actions,expressions,symbols,pictures and other ways to interact with others,expressing their demands.Even the people aren't able to express themselves,they can still use some assistive devices to achieve the interaction with others to establish a good interpersonal relationship.However,as for a multiple disabilities child,if he can't use the proper communication modes to exchange information with others,it may cause many communication problems.Due to the child with multiple disabilities,he can't have effective education,it is very difficult for him to adapt to the society to enjoy his life.The multiple disabilities are at least more than two barriers caused by different reasons.With the discussing of the characteristics of the development of communication of the special children who are multiple disabilities,this research combines the related researches of auxiliary communication system and the training of non-verbal moderate mental retardation children studies as well as the child's present conditions to improve her communication abilities.This research is based on the training structure outline to aid communication through image communication,low technologically-assisted communication training and communication for assistive devices.According to the researches,Augmentative and Alternative Communication(AAC)is an effective way to solve the problems.AAC includes two meanings.The first aspect of the meaning is augmentative,which refers to the ways of expression when someone expresses himself.Except using by language,the action way and the symbolic way are also used to assist individual to communicate.Alternative communication refers to the person whose speaking ability was seriously damaged.What the person has to use to express himself relies on special technologies or communication equipments,including communication boards,high-tech electronics and so on.It is obviously that the Augmentative and Alternative Communication is the most effective way for a special child to express himself and communicate with others in a short time.During the research,the changing criterion design,Observation and questionnaire are used.Data is collected during baseline,treatment,maintain,and generalization phases.The results of this study are as follows: After the communication symbols training,the participant's communication abilities of expression has significantly improved and maintained;After the low technologically-assisted communication training,the participant's ability of using sentences to express has significantly improved and maintained;Using AAC in the real communication situation,the participant's communication skill is remarkable and improving.