Degree Name

M.Ed. (Master of Education)

Program

Special Education

Date of Award

5-2017

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Pamela Mims

Committee Members

James Fox III, Tina Hudson, Chris Rivera

Abstract

Having a meaningful system for expressing common needs and thoughts is important for overall quality of life for students with intellectual disability and limited expressive language. The current study was conducted to evaluate whether one communication system, Proloquo2Go ($249.99) or SwiftKey Symbols (FREE), is more effective in the acquisition of targeted expressive phrases in one student with intellectual disability who exhibited expressive communication difficulties. The student was provided with instruction in both systems using task analytic instruction and system of least prompting and encouraged to use each system at different times in a single case, alternating treatment design. Results indicated that Proloquo2Go led to faster acquisition of targeted phrases, although gains were shown with both devices. Although, given the cost difference, teachers and parents may want to consider free options, like SwiftKeys, given the student made gains with this device. Future research is needed to provide generalizability of these results.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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