Prediction of Future Speech Performance among Potential Users of AAC Systems: A Survey

This article describes an initial effort to study the variables considered by augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) professionals as they predict the potential for functional speech in their clients. Seventeen professionals were surveyed regarding three etiologic categories of severely communicatively impaired speakers: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (degenerative), traumatic brain injury (recovering), and cerebral palsy (stable). The survey consisted of 24 items arbitrarily divided into six groupings: background, speech production, language/cognition, emotional/motivational, position/mobility, and sensory. The results of the survey revealed that variables considered by AAC professionals varied from etiology to etiology with specific factors considered as highly predictive for persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple factors considered predictive for persons with traumatic brain injury and cerebral palsy.