Effectiveness of Communication Devices Pertaining to Students with Communication Impairments

Abstract

ABSTRACT Effectiveness of Communication Devices Pertaining to Students with Communication Impairments

Sarah Wilkins

Director: Kathy Whipple, PhD

Speech generating devices (SGD) allow individuals with verbal disabilities to speak through the use of an augmentative device.  With the introduction of the iPad/iPod® devices, these individuals have greater accessibility to speech generating devices.  This review evaluated the results reported in ten studies that used the iPad/iPod® with children or adults in need of augmentative communication.  The results suggest that iPad/iPod® usage and the SGD most often employ the Proloquo2go® application.  In addition, those children with a diagnosis of autism were most likely to show positive results from the use of these devices.    Of the 31 subjects in the ten studies, 74% showed improvement.  Eighteen of the twenty children diagnosed with autism were reported to have improved through the use of the iPad/iPod® SGD.  Those studies that followed the children for the most contact time tended to have the most positive results.

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