Teaching children who use augmentative and alternative communication to ask inverted yes/no questions using aided modeling.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the effects of a direct intervention program involving aided modeling and the presentation of contrastive targets on the aided production of inverted yes/no questions and possible generalization to other sentence types by children using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

METHOD: A single-case, multiple-probe, experimental design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of the instructional program with 3 children who had motor speech disorders and used AAC (ages 4;10 [years;months], 6;2, and 4;9). The treatment involved aided modeling of treatment and contrastive targets through concentrated modeling and interactive play activities. Direct treatment outcomes were examined by measuring the accuracy of producing inverted yes/no questions and to be declaratives through probes.

RESULTS: All 3 participants showed a direct treatment effect, producing a greater number of inverted yes/no questions and to be declaratives within the probes following treatment compared with before treatment. All 3 participants evidenced some generalization to novel sentences.

CONCLUSIONS: Results provide initial evidence that instruction involving aided modeling with contrastive targets holds promise in targeting specific linguistic rules with children using AAC. Patterns of generalization may depend on participants' specific language deficits and acquisition patterns during intervention.