Insights I Have Gained From Reading Research This Week.

Knowing what research is finding related to child and adolescent development provides foundational knowledge for you practice as an educator.  

For my research project I am looking at whether or not assistive technology can help individuals with autism develop better self-advocacy skills. I have finalized my sources and am now just collecting all the relevant information from each source that points to properly answering my question. One of the journals I read this week discussed the positive affects that AAC (augmentative and alternative communications) technology has on helping children with autism better make requests regarding play and playing patterns. The study included teaching the boys a requesting sequence on the technology that would help them better communicate that they wanted the toy they were previously playing with to be returned. Not only were they able to successfully complete the sequence, but they were able to decrease the negative behaviors that were present before the study (i.e. hitting and reaching). Another interesting study I have looked at this week looked into the ways that AAC technology can be implemented at home with the help of a parent. This study focused on three neurodivergent children who were taught how to use AAC technology to request the continuation of certain routines that were previously established. Just like the first study, this second study showed that the children were more than able to successfully use the technology after being taught, as well as continuing using the ethnology after the implementation stopped. Both of these studies are ones I will be using for my Conceptual Framework project as both provide helpful insight into the connection between AAC technology and helping children with ASD being able to better advocate for themselves.