Educational Strategy with Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems for children with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities
Keywords:
alternative systems, augmentative systems, communicative skills, intellectual disabilityAbstract
Introduction: An educational strategy with Augmentative and Alternative Systems of Communication refers to a set of approaches and methods designed to support children with language and communication difficulties; assessing its scope is useful for successful decision-making.
Objective: To improve the communication skills and social participation of children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities through the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems in educational and everyday surroundings.
Methods: Descriptive/explanatory correlational research, where 30 children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities were intervened through an educative strategy with augmentative and alternative-communication systems applied in four phases of intervention.
Results: Improvements were achieved in expressive skills (45% to 70%; +25%), receptive skills (50% to 75%; +25%), social interactions (40% to 65%; +25%), use of compensatory strategies (60% to 80%; +20%), and communication in everyday contexts (55% to 79%; +24%). In all cases, significant differences were found in favor of the post-test (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The results of this study show that Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems are an effective tool for improving communication skills and social participation of children with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities. Likewise, the intervention with these alternative systems improves key areas, such as expressive and receptive skills, social interactions, the use of compensatory strategies, and communication in everyday contexts. These advancements not only facilitate the integration of children into their educational and social environments, but also promote their overall well-being and quality of life.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Germánico Renee Tovar-Arcos, Rita Maricela Plúas-Salazar, Dinora Alexandra Carpio-Vera, Raúl Ruperto Pánchez-Hernández
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