Instructional techniques in alternative communication for students with severe intellectual handicaps

Abstract

A series of investigations was conducted with three nonspeaking subjects with severe intellectual disabilities to teach use of a pictorial communication device. The interventions were preceded by assessments of the subjects' receptive language and matching abilities, as well as by assessments related to their leisure preferences and sensorimotor status. Individualized interventions based on the prompt-free strategy reported by Mirenda and Santogrossi (1985, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 1, 143–150) were instituted with the subjects over a 6 week period. None of the subjects acquired the desired response as a result of the prompt-free intervention. One of the subjects acquired the desired communicative response after a “verbal prompt-free” modification was instituted. The results are discussed in terms of the preintervention assessment information and the instructional strategies employed.