The Research Behind Model Communicator

Modeling works, across ages and diagnoses

A meta-analysis of 28 studies found that interventions in which partners used the AAC system themselves while talking (aided AAC input) were highly effective for both understanding and expression, across ages, disabilities and language levels. Partners usually combined modeling with waiting, prompting and responding to what the person said.

How MoCo uses this: The app is named for it. Our modeling guide teaches families and school teams how to do it in everyday routines.

Different ways to model all helped

A systematic review of 48 studies with 267 children and youth grouped aided modeling into three approaches: augmented input, models used as prompts, and models inside teaching demonstrations. Procedures varied, and the interventions were generally effective at improving expressive communication.

How MoCo uses this: On the iPad, modeling mode lets an adult model on the communicator’s own device without those taps changing the word suggestions the communicator sees.

An earlier review reached the same conclusion

Sennott, Light and McNaughton reviewed the AAC modeling intervention studies available in 2016 and reported gains for beginning communicators when partners modeled on the AAC system during natural interactions.

A small set of words is used everywhere

Banajee, DiCarlo and Stricklin recorded toddlers in preschool routines and found a small set of words used across activities. These core words were pronouns, verbs, prepositions and words like more, no and that. Nouns were not among them.

How MoCo uses this: Core words sit on the MoCo-60 border and stay in view on every page, so they are always one tap away.

The same holds for school-aged children

Boenisch and Soto recorded typically developing school-aged children, some of whom spoke English as a second language, during school activities. The words used most often across samples form a core vocabulary inventory that can serve as a source list for AAC vocabulary selection.

Core word lists alone under-serve beginners

Laubscher and Light compared published core word lists with the first words of typically developing children. Core lists under-emphasize the kinds of words that dominate early vocabularies, so the authors caution against relying on them alone when designing systems for early symbolic communicators.

How MoCo uses this: This is why MoCo is organized around topics. Each topic page puts the specific words for a routine or activity next to the core words, so a beginner can talk about what is actually happening.

Universal Core

Project Core, from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, publishes a 36-word Universal Core vocabulary and free teaching resources for students with significant disabilities.

Consistent locations get faster with practice

Preschoolers without disabilities searched for symbols over five sessions. There was no difference in the first session. By the fifth, children whose symbols stayed in the same place were significantly faster than children whose symbols moved. The authors note that replication with children who use AAC is critical.

How MoCo uses this: Words on a MoCo board do not move. The border is the same on every page.

Teach words in their final location

Adults without disabilities learned six words either as large icons filling the screen, or as small icons in their final positions on a 40-location grid with the other icons hidden. On the full grid, those trained in the final locations found the words faster and more accurately.

How MoCo uses this: Instead of starting on a smaller board, keep the full MoCo-60 layout and hide the words you are not teaching yet. When a word is revealed it is already where it will always be.

Grouping by word type speeds up message building

Fifty-two young children without disabilities built multi-symbol messages on a 4 × 4 array. They were significantly faster when symbols were arranged by word class. Most were also faster on white backgrounds than colored ones, though that difference was not statistically significant, and the authors advise caution with background color for young children.

How MoCo uses this: The MoCo border groups words by type, in the order a sentence is built.

Spacing and grouping reduce visual crowding

Using eye tracking with ten adolescents and adults with Down syndrome, Wilkinson, Gilmore and Qian found that layouts which reduced crowding and used position to signal grammatical category led to fewer looks at irrelevant symbols. Background color helped participants find the target sooner.

How MoCo uses this: MoCo tiles are color coded by word type using a version of the Fitzgerald Key, and a high contrast setting is available. See what the tile colors mean.

Display design: the state of the science

This review summarizes what is known about how display variables affect visual attention and performance for children with developmental disabilities and adults with acquired conditions, for both visual scene displays and grids, and sets out what still needs to be studied.