Technological Evolvement in AAC Modalities to Foster Communications of Verbally Challenged ASD Children: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) emerged as a combination of methods or strategies that constitute any device, such as Speech Generating Device (SGD), Program (mobile applications), Procedure (PECS, Picture Exchange Communication System), which enhances individual's communication ability. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a spectrum of comprehensive neurodevelopment disorder that leads to speech impairments, repetitive behavior, and social communication difficulties; therefore, it is imperative to underscore that at the core of all impediments are communication impairment. This article represents a systematic review of research initiatives that investigate multi-modal AAC strategies and functionality, features of mobile applications to reinforce communication and communal skills in verbally challenged ASD children because other researches are focused only on low or high-tech AAC or interventions to provide insights on ASD children respond to a particular approach. Following the PRISMA method, a total of 60 (January 2015 to October 2020) research articles were reviewed, indexed by Springer, Science Direct, Scopus, ACM, IEEE databases, and published in the AAC journal. The selected research articles are categorized into different themes where most of them focused on interactive mobile applications to improve emotional, social, learning, and overall communication skills in verbally challenged ASD children. This systematic review provides an outline of the paradigm shift in AAC modalities from PECS to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Augmented Reality (AR) based applications. It opens up underline future opportunities to integrate intelligent analytics features in mobile applications to strengthen communication skills in verbally undermined ASD children. INDEX TERMSAugmentative and Alternative Communication(AAC), Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD), Mobile Applications, Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence(AI), Augmented Reality(AR).

LAIR - Language As Intermediate Representation

“…Technical AAC solutions for symbol-based communication range from simple concatenation of symbols for needs-based, functional communication with small vocabularies to complex (commercial) systems (see, e.g., Lancioni et al (2019) for a detailed survey). Currently, technical AAC solutions are evolving rapidly and are increasingly available on mainstream devices like smartphones and tablets (Light and McNaughton, 2012;Ascari et al, 2018;Farzana et al, 2021).…”

Determinants of Technological Interventions for Children With Autism - A Systematic Review

“…Artificial Intelligence (AI) identifies the human behaviour with the machine, and megaliter extracts the information from the machine by analyzing the data (Difference Between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, 2022). AI and megaliter based learning tools increase the performance monitoring scope (Farzana et al, 2021). It helps the caregivers (parents/teachers/therapists) and researchers to identify the appropriate requirements for the development of individuals with Autism (Farzana et al, 2021; Hasan & Nene, 2022b).…”

“…AI and megaliter based learning tools increase the performance monitoring scope (Farzana et al, 2021). It helps the caregivers (parents/teachers/therapists) and researchers to identify the appropriate requirements for the development of individuals with Autism (Farzana et al, 2021; Hasan & Nene, 2022b).…”

“…Communications, social interaction, and repetitive behaviour are three of the areas where major deficits occur due to Autism (First et al, 2022). The symptoms of ASD affected children are: failing to follow instructions, repeated behaviour, avoiding eye contact, poor social skills, inability to comprehend other people’s emotions and inability to focus on a task for a long period (Farzana et al, 2021; Hasan & Nene, 2022d; Ke et al, 2018; Ramdoss et al, 2012). The technology based learning system has emerged into the field of learning for children with ASD (Hasan & Nene, 2022b; Syriopoulou-Delli & Stefani, 2021).…”

Adaptation of Augmentative and Alternative Communicators through the Study of Interactions with High-Tech Solution Users

“…One of the multiple solutions proposed to date is the use of specific software that assists in user communication [2]. In this context, in 2011, our research team published Android application PictoDroid Lite.…”