Weave Chat is a communication app with a research inspired design.
Background Colors & Keyboard Design
Per Thistle, specific background color can aid users in locating target words. In addition, this background color increased average response time and proved to be faster when compared to only a black and white background. Lastly, background color proved effective when there was a larger array size (ex: above 16-symbols) from which a user was choosing picture symbols. (Thistle, J., 2019)
Per Thistle & Wilkinson, "...grouping symbols by word type (e.g., nouns, adjectives) results in faster and more accurate sentence construction by children without disabilities than when the symbols are not grouped (2017).”
Receptive & Expressive Language
Children with multiple and mixed diagnoses demonstrated positive outcomes when AAC interventions were used. Per Langarika-Rocafort et al., 2021 “AAC-based interventions improve communication skills, including phonological awareness, vocabulary, requesting, and developing narrative skills, in children aged between 6 and 10 years with mixed diagnoses.”
Use of AAC as an intervention may help students with autism learn to verbalize their requests. Per a study completed by Muharib et al (2020), use of back-wards chaining and least-to-most prompting paired with speech-output technology facilitated verbal and device-based multi-word requests.
AAC can be used to provide visual models and feedback to help support spoken language development in children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Using a least-to-most cueing hierarchy (ex: direct modeling vs expanding and reinforcing what the child has stated), AAC enabled “DHH children to more fully access and process information thus improving spoken language, comprehension, and pragmatic skills (Meinzen-Derr et al., 2021).”
Per Walters, Sevcik, & Romski, Parent-implemented language interventions that use spoken language paired with AAC vs only spoken language, result in children who produce more spoken language (i.e., target vocabulary words) than those that received only spoken language intervention. Additionally, there was no statistically significant difference in the amount of speech sound errors produced between the two groups (2021).
Build & Maintain Friendships
A qualitative study where 10 young adult AAC users were interviewed about their friendships demonstrate how important social interaction is to quality of life. Participants reported that it was important that they could communicate with their friends about everything - basic needs as well as feelings, thoughts, and emotions and that access to an extensive age-appropriate vocabulary was crucial. In addition, interviewees noted that due to complexities surrounding their disabilities, sometimes it was difficult to meet friends in person to communicate. The authors note that “the narratives revealed that young adults using AAC experienced companionship and support in their friendships. Being understood by their friends emerged as an important factor in their friendships” (Dada, Tonsing, & Goldbart, 2020).
Some might say that “prestored” or “prewritten” phrases limit the AAC user’s language use and voicing of opinion. However, according to Savolainen et al, (2020), prestored phrases can provide advantages to skilled AAC users between 7-18 years of age when used with familiar conversation partners. For example, prestored phrases helped the conversation flow more smoothly and helped users to initiate a topic. The authors note that it is important that these prestored phrases include casual and colloquial forms of language as well as idioms, and that incomplete phrases (ex: “I really like your _____) can help maintain a conversation.
“Such sharing may not necessarily contain vital information to be transferred. Rather, the sharing of personal experiences—from the routine to the extraordinary—serves to promote social closeness. That is, children share past and future happenings to establish, maintain, and develop social relationships.”
— Light, J., 1988
Bibliography
Dada, S., Tonsing, K., & Goldbart, J. (2020). Friendship Experiences of Young Adults Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912x.2020.1746246
Langarika-Rocafort, A., Mondragon, N. I., & Etxebarrieta, G. R. (2021). A Systematic Review of Research on Augmentative and Alternative Communication Interventions for Children Aged 6–10 in the Last Decade. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 52(3), 899–916. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_lshss-20-00005
Light, J. (1988). Interaction involving individuals using augmentative and alternative communication systems: State of the art and future directions. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 4, 66–82.
Meinzen-Derr, J., Sheldon, R., Altaye, M., Lane, L., Mays, L., & Wiley, S. (2021). A Technology-Assisted Language Intervention for Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Pediatrics, 147(2), e2020025734. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-025734
Muharib, R., Alzrayer, N. M., Wood, C. L., & Voggt, A. P. (2020). Backward chaining and speech-output technologies to enhance functional communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 35(4), 251–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2019.1704433
Savolainen, I., Klippi, A., Tykkyläinen, T., & Launonen, K. (2020). Linguistic and temporal resources of pre-stored utterances in everyday conversations. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 36(3), 195–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659020950388
Thistle, J. J. (2019). The Effect of Symbol Background Color on the Speed of Locating Targets by Adults Without Disabilities: Implications for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Display Design. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 4(6), 1482–1488. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_persp-19-00017
Thistle, J. J., & Wilkinson, K. (2017). Effects of background color and symbol arrangement cues on construction of multi-symbol messages by young children without disabilities: implications for aided AAC design. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 33(3), 160–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2017.1336571
Walters, C., Sevcik, R. A., & Romski, M. (2021). Spoken Vocabulary Outcomes of Toddlers With Developmental Delay After Parent-Implemented Augmented Language Intervention. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 30(3), 1023–1037. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_ajslp-20-00093