Increasing linguistic and prelinguistic communication for social closeness during naturalistic AAC instruction with young children on the autism spectrum

This study examined the effects of an intervention package using high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with Naturalistic Instruction (NI), time delay, and prompting during social routines for preschoolers on the autism spectrum. The AAC was a communication application on a tablet programmed with color photo representations of participants and communication partners engaged in social routines. The primary dependent measure was a linguistic communication turn on the AAC device completing the instructor's cloze phrase related to the routine. A secondary dependent measure was prelinguistic communication -nonspecific vocalizations and smiling - within each turn of the routine. Results indicated that all communication types increased and maintained for all three participants with two participants meeting mastery criteria within the minimal number of sessions. These results are significant in providing additional evidence for the effectiveness of AAC intervention beyond teaching simple object requests and in teaching more socially meaningful communication to children on the autism spectrum. Additionally, this study supports the use of color photo representations to promote social interaction. Future research should continue to evaluate such interventions on a larger scale and include naturally occurring communication partners, such as siblings and peers.