Unraveling time in communicative interactions involving children who use aided communication.

Abstract

Time use and timing are of particular relevance for people who use communication aids because of the role time plays in communication. However, the use of time in real-life communicative interactions of aided communicators has not been much researched. The present study explores time use in goal-oriented and activity-based communicative interactions involving 72 children who used aided communication and 56 children who used natural speech, aged 5-15 years, and their communication partners. The children using aided communication took significantly longer time than their naturally speaking peers to complete the tasks using language. Access method, whether direct or scanning, did impact aided communicators' time use, with children using direct access being faster than children using scanning. Time use was not statistically related to age or verbal comprehension but was related to non-verbal reasoning: to communicate with their partners, children with higher non-verbal reasoning scores used less time than children with lower reasoning scores. Regardless of access method, aided communicators who used less time to communicate had more success in solving the tasks. The results suggest that to tackle the issue of time, aided language interventions with children could focus on communicative problem-solving with partners in real-life situations.