"You got an instant conversation": Goal progress and perceptions following an e-mentoring social media intervention for young people who use augmentative and alternative communication.

INTRODUCTION: Persons with communication disability are at increased risk of social isolation due to multiple societal barriers. Young people with communication disability are not using social media to the same extent as the general population, limiting their access to social networks. The aim of this research was to investigate an e-mentoring intervention to progress the goal attainment of online conversation for young people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). METHODS: Using a mixed-methods design, four participants between 13 and 18 years of age who used AAC participated in a 4-month cross-age peer e-mentoring intervention. Mentoring was provided by adults who were considered cross-age peers as they also used AAC. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) tools were used to measure progress in individually developed goals for online conversation. Interviews with participants, their parents, and their mentors were conducted to describe their experiences of the intervention. RESULTS: Changes in participants' COPM ratings of performance and satisfaction with performance following intervention were statistically significant (p = 0.001, p = 0.032 respectively) and on average participant goals were attained at the expected level on the goal attainment scale (T = 63.97). However, goal attainment varied when considering specific goals. Variability in goal progress was described by participants alongside a range of barriers and facilitators. Mentees, their parents, and their mentors perceived that the intervention enabled goal progress and described improvements in social media use that extended beyond the targeted goals. CONCLUSIONS: Outcomes from the COPM and GAS demonstrate the value of cross-age peer e-mentoring to support young people who use AAC to participate in online conversation. Benefits of the intervention were commonly perceived by mentees, their parents, and mentors to extend beyond the specific goal attainments.

Exploring participation experiences of youth who use AAC in social media settings: impact of an e-mentoring intervention.

The contribution of cross-age peer e-mentoring on reported experiences of participation during online conversations using social media was explored in this pre-experimental study. Young people (n = 4, aged 13; 4-18;3 [years; months]) who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) participated in an e-mentoring intervention. Two mentors who also used AAC had regular conversations with the participants via Facebook 1 , email, or Skype 2 . It was predicted that the mentoring support would contribute to experiences of participation in online conversations outside of the e-mentoring intervention. Reported experiences of participation in online conversations with communication partners other than the mentor were measured at four time points. The Self-Reported Experiences of Activity Settings was used for this purpose because it consists of five domains: Personal Growth, Psychological Engagement, Social Belonging, Meaningful Interactions, and Choice and Control. These domains are associated with the construct of involvement in activity settings. Results showed varied scores between participants and across the domains. Reported experiences of choice and control increased slightly across time. Despite some variation in self-ratings, the participants reported experiencing choice and control, psychological engagement, and social belonging in online conversations. There is need for more research in this emerging area.

Effectiveness of video-based modelling to facilitate conversational turn taking of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder who use AAC.

This study evaluated and compared the effectiveness of packaged video modelling (VM) and video self-modelling (VSM) interventions to develop conversational behaviors with four adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The study was conducted using an alternating treatments design nested within a multiple baseline design. The intervention effect was measured using Robust-Improvement Rate Difference (R-IRD). The results demonstrated that, overall, video-based modelling used in conjunction with a system of least prompts was effective in promoting conversation skills in adolescents with ASD who used AAC. Without the systematic instruction, R-IRD indicated that these techniques yielded only small to moderate intervention effects. The findings demonstrated the necessity of systematic instruction for this group of participants. This investigation provides preliminary evidence to support the use of packaged video-based modelling interventions to develop conversation skills in adolescents with ASD who use AAC systems.

Usability testing of a prototype multi-user telehealth kiosk.

The overall purpose of this study was to learn how community-dwelling older adults would interact with our prototype multi-user telehealth kiosk and their views about its usability. Seven subjects participated in laboratory-based usability sessions to evaluate the physical design, appearance, functionality and perceived ease of use of a multi-user telehealth kiosk prototype. During usability testing participants recommended 18 new features (29% of comments), identified 15 software errors (23% of comments) and 29 user interface errors (47% of comments).

Designing the community multi-user health kiosk.

This paper discusses the design and development of a multi-user health kiosk intended for independent use by underserved populations. The modular integration of physiological sensors and psycho-social assessments provides an extensible, customizable platform for research. We present the development of the kiosk's feature set and user interaction mechanisms through iterative user testing, in addition to some technical challenges and solutions resulting from our design choices.