Is video tech effective for children with speech-related disabilities?

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices are tools that help people with speech or language impairments communicate. Visual scene displays (VSDs) enhance these tools with interactive pictures and videos and appear to improve the effectiveness of communication support for children with speech-related disabilities, but the use of VSDs was not designated as an “evidence-based practice.”

The designation may only be bestowed if the practice meets specific indicators established by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). To see if VSDs meet the CEC standards, Penn State College of Education researchers David McNaughton, professor of special education, and Dana Patenaude, a doctoral student in special education assessed several studies incorporating VSDs and found that they can be considered an evidence-based practice in communication intervention for young children.

Penn State News spoke with the researchers about their work, which was published in the Journal of Special Education Technology, and what it means for the future of these devices in classrooms.

What are VSDs and how are they used in intervention and research?

McNaughton: VSDs are contextualized images that are of interest to the learner, programmed with vocabulary that is developmentally appropriate and meaningful to the child. An image of a meaningful event is presented on a tablet computer and is programmed with areas, known as “hotspots” that the user can engage with to produce speech, sounds and/or text pop-ups.

In a VSD approach, a teacher or parent can build communication right into those photos, books and videos—when a child demonstrates interest in a picture, we can add a hotspot to any part of the picture and help them “talk” about that picture immediately. Looking at books and videos is a favorite activity for many children, so we can support learning new vocabulary and communication skills in activities that are already taking place with young children.

What did your team set out to understand?

Patenaude: With any new assistive technology, like VSDs, it is important that research helps us understand the situations in which the technology may or may not be helpful. In this paper, we evaluated the published research on the use of VSDs with young children with expressive communication disabilities. We wanted to know whether there is support for their use with autistic children, children with Down syndrome and other children who may have difficulty with speech.

What did your team learn?

Patenaude: We identified 12 studies that clearly document the positive effect of VSDs for young children. This approach is quite different from traditional AAC displays, in which line drawings of vocabulary are arranged in a grid.

With VSDs and video VSDs, there is less triangulation for the child—they don’t need to look between the communication partner, the activity and the AAC device. With VSDs, the communication supports are embedded right into the activity of interest, whether it is a book, a picture or a video. This can make it a lot easier to engage and interact with the child.

The quantity and quality of published VSD research meets the standards developed by the Council for Exceptional Children, and that means VSDs can be described as an “evidence-based practice” to support language and literacy development for young children who have difficulty with speech.

That designation gives people credible information that a specific approach works for a particular goal for a certain population. Based on our findings, we can say that VSDs are an effective support for language and literacy development for young children who have difficulty with speech.

Now that your team has determined the tool is effective, what does that mean for parents, teachers and other communication professionals in the field? For children who may benefit from the tool?

McNaughton: There are a lot of different approaches that have been suggested for children who have difficulty communicating through speech. This can be very confusing for teachers, parents and professionals.

The good thing about identifying something as an evidence-based practice is you’re giving people credible information that a particular approach works for a particular goal for a particular population. In this case, we can say with confidence that VSDs contribute to positive language and literacy outcomes for children with expressive communication disabilities.