An AAC tablet application for children with language impairment

Abstract

People with communication impairment need an alternative communication channel to complete daily activities. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems can help provide a communication medium to support such users. The involvement of speech and language pathologists (SLPs) who work in rehabilitation centers can help develop better solutions. This paper presents the development of an AAC tablet application that uses pictures on the screen and voice feedback to help children with language impairment improve the efficiency in their communication. The proposed solution maps the sentences commonly used by children into appealing symbols. The children can use these symbols instead of constructing sentences from scratch, as done by most of the previously proposed solutions in the literature. The application was evaluated by SLPs on six children with language impairment. This research presents a design methodology when providing such a solution for touch screen devices for people with language impairment. A set of accessibility guidelines is proposed for AAC computer-based solutions, which can help researchers and practitioners. The obtained results prove that the proposed system improves the children’s stimulation to communicate and decreases communication time. Such a solution can assist therapists as a resource to improve their patients’ communication.