Novita Research Report January 1999 - Novita Children's Services

Reading and phonological awareness in children with complex communication needs:
literacy outcomes of internet-based assessment and intervention
Joanne Leane 1
Honours Student
Supervisors
Parimala
Raghavendra
Manager,
Clinical Research
and Adjunct Lecturer 1
Ingrid Scholten 1
Senior Lecturer
1
Department of Speech
Pathology and Audiology,
Flinders University of SA
Objective
A high proportion of people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) have poor literacy skills.
The aim of the study was:
1) To use Assessment of Phonological Awareness and Reading (APAR) 1 to investigate each participant’s strength
and weaknesses in phonological awareness and word reading skills;
2) To compare results from APAR with two other standardised assessments in order to investigate the accuracy of
results gained from the APAR; and
3) To observe improvements in the participants’ abilities to read single words by way of word analysis using
Accessible Word Reading Intervention (AWRI) 2 .
Method
APAR assesses three areas: reading, phonological awareness and listening comprehension and can be
administered via computer, or, as was the case in this project, printed and presented in hard copy. AWRI also has
three areas of focus: compound words, onset and rime, and word endings that are downloaded and presented on
computer. In this project, only the onset-rime component was used.
A single subject experimental design utilising a multiple baseline across three participants (age: 11, 14 and 15 years)
was employed in this project. Each participant had cerebral palsy, complex communication needs and used a
Pathfinder TM or Liberator TM communication device. Assessment and intervention sessions were conducted intensively
over a 2 month period. The children were assessed with the APAR in daily sessions before commencing intervention
with AWRI. Passive tasks were used to facilitate recognition of onset and rime in monosyllabic words. Active tasks
were used to promote participants’ skills in selection of an appropriate onset or rime to complete monosyllabic
words and picture to word matching. All three participants accessed AWRI via a switch-adapted mouse.
Once each participant had responded correctly to 90% of the trained probes or had completed fifteen sessions
with the AWRI, intervention ceased. Finally, APAR was re-administered.
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Results
Improvements were evident in word reading tasks of APAR’s reading section in all 3 participants. Analysis of results
indicated that AWRI was highly effective in promoting word-reading skills for one participant, fairly effective for the
second and of very little effect for the third.
Implications
Further research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of AWRI and further explore the reliability and validity of APAR.
These preliminary results show that APAR and AWRI can be used with people with complex communication needs.
1,2
Iacono, T. & Cupples (n.d.) APAR & AWRI, www.med.monash.edu.au/access
Project completed in 2002
Novita Children’s Services Incorporated • Research Report January 1999 – June 2004