Using the ImPAACT program with preschoolers with Down syndrome: a hybrid service-delivery model
Erika M. Timpe, Jennifer Kent-Walsh, Cathy Binger, Debbie L. Hahs‐Vaughn, Nancy Grant Harrington, Jamie B. Schwartz
Abstract
Three parents of preschool-aged children with Down syndrome using mobile augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies to communicate participated indirect, systematic communication-partner instruction. Intervention featured an adaptation of the ImPAACT Program (Improving Partner Applications of Augmentative Communication Techniques; Kent-Walsh, Binger, & Malani, 2010) that included six face-to-face and three telepractice sessions. Parents learned to use the evidence-based Read–Ask–Answer (RAA) instructional strategy (Kent-Walsh, Binger, & Hasham, 2010 Kent-Walsh, J., Binger, C., & Hasham, Z. (2010). Effects of parent instruction on the symbolic communication of children using augmentative and alternative communication during storybook reading. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19(2), 97–107. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2010/09-0014)[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) during shared storybook reading with their children. A single-case, multiple-probe across participants design was used to assess parents’ accurate implementation of the instructional strategy and children’s multimodal communicative turns. All three parents increased their use of the RAA strategy and maintained strategy use over time, and all three children increased their frequency of communicative turns taken and maintained higher turn-taking rates. Results support the use of the ImPAACT Program with parents of children with complex communication needs, including the integration of hybrid learning as part of the instructional approach.