The effects of real-life scene familiarity on accuracy when using Visual scenes displays to organize vocabulary on speech generating devices.

Abstract

Purpose: Evidence supports using dynamic visual scene displays (VSDs) for children as between 25-40 months old. This study explored vocabulary type and the number of scenes displayed concurrently in relation to navigation skills. Method: Thirty-one children located 54 targeted items using a 2-page liked navigational page, on a dynamic VSD. Tests of mean accuracy were completed to examine participant performance selecting the scene across three opportunities. An analysis examining relationship between performance and chronological age and receptive language was also completed. Results: Results indicated participants increased their scene selection by an average 14% across three opportunities, without instruction. However, not occur for target symbol selection as a result of a ceiling effect occurred for the selection of individual symbols on the second page of the dynamic display.. . In addition, there was no relationship between either scene and and target symbol selection accuracy to either the age of the participant nor their receptive language in this study. Conclusion: Young children can improve their navigation skills as a result of exposure in the absence of instruction. Chronological age appeared to have a relationship that approached significance with respect to the accuracy with which participants’ selected the relevant scene depicting the target symbol, but did not appear to influence participants’ accuracy in locating photographs depicting a target referent on the second page of a visual scene display.