Communication Intervention to Teach Requesting Through Aided AAC for Two Learners With Rett Syndrome

Abstract

Evidence on effective communication interventions for persons with Rett syndrome is needed to drive the standard of care with this population. This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention package to teach multiple, aided communication requests for two persons with Rett syndrome (ages 27 and 7) through within participant, adapted multiple baseline designs across items/activities. Participants were taught graphic mode requests on speech generating devices, with access methods based on motor ability; one participant responded by pressing a touch screen, and one participant responded by fixed eye-gaze. Results are discussed in relation to the effectiveness of the intervention packages on increasing the accuracy of independent request selection responses emitted and the number of sessions required to reach an a priori performance criterion for both participants. Difficulties during initial prompting and during prompt fading with the eye-gaze response are considered. The findings suggest implications related to emerging evidence on the intervention methods to teach requesting skills to this population, and future research directions for communication intervention options for persons with severe communication impairment and limited motor repertoires.