Abstract
BackgroundMobile touchscreen devices are currently being used as speech-generating devices (SGDs) and have been shown to promote the communication skills, particularly the requesting skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who have limited spoken language. However, no augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) mobile app has been developed and evaluated in the Chinese language in Mainland China.MethodsWe developed an AAC mobile app, which is the first in Mainland China, to our knowledge, named Yuudee (Chinese name 小雨滴 (xiaoyudi)). Yuudee was developed using the Objective-C and Java programming languages. A five-phase training protocol for making requests using Yuudee was developed based on the Picture Exchange Communication System. We trained ten minimally verbal children with ASD to make requests using Yuudee and evaluated the effectiveness of the training.ResultsYuudee has a built-in library of over 400 pictures with corresponding spoken phrases that are divided into 39 categories ranging from making simple requests to expressing emotions. An additional important feature of Yuudee is its customization functions that allow a parent or trainer to easily select pictures and phrases to display, create new pictures and phrases, and change the layouts and orders of the pictures to fit the personal needs of each child. Yuudee is freely available in an iOS version from the iTunes App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/xiao-yu-di/id794832934?mt=8) and in an Android version from Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.supersuperstar.yuudee.vue) and domestic Chinese Android App stores. Three consecutive unprompted successful responses, which were defined as an initial training success, were achieved in at least three of the five phases for all ten of the evaluated children. The accuracy rate of a given phase was calculated for each child who achieved three consecutive unprompted successful responses in the phase. Seven children achieved at least 50% accuracy in at least two of the five phases. The other three children achieved at least 50% accuracy in only one phase. Two children achieved at least 50% accuracy in all of the phases in which they were trained.ConclusionsOur data suggest that Yuudee is a useful tool for helping minimally verbal children with ASD make requests.
Highlights
Mobile touchscreen devices are currently being used as speech-generating devices (SGDs) and have been shown to promote the communication skills, the requesting skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who have limited spoken language
Considering the potentially large number of minimally verbal children with ASD in Mainland China and given the demonstrated benefits of alternative communication (AAC) Apps in improving communication skills, we developed a freely available AAC mobile App named Yuudee that features a large built-in picture library and a set of customization functions
To address the lack of AAC mobile Apps for minimally verbal children with ASD in Mainland China, we developed a flexible and customizable App named Yuudee that runs on mobile touchscreen devices
Summary
Mobile touchscreen devices are currently being used as speech-generating devices (SGDs) and have been shown to promote the communication skills, the requesting skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who have limited spoken language. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, including gestures, sign language, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), and speechgenerating devices (SGDs), have been developed to improve the communicative capacity of children with limited functional spoken language. Studies have demonstrated that PECS training can promote functional communication skills (e.g., requesting and commenting skills) and social communication skills in children with ASD [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Children with ASD who were trained to use PECS showed improvements in their verbal skills in some studies [14, 16]. In a randomized controlled study, PECS was more effective than Responsive Education and Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching for increasing the number of nonimitative spoken communication acts and the number of different nonimitative words used in the posttreatment period [17], these differences were not found in a later follow-up period
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