Survey of Speech and Language Pathologist's Knowledge of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Methods

Inability in speaking is a barrier to communicate and ultimately lead to distancing from the community.Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) services have been proposed as a mechanism to aid individuals with severe impairments in speech perception and production. The aim of this study was to examine the level of knowledge of speech and language pathologists (SLPs) of AAC services. Methods and Materials: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the knowledge of 25 speech and language pathologists who were working in hospitals and clinics affiliated with the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences were investigated for AAC services. A researcher- made questionnaire was used toexa mine the knowledge. Content validity of the questionnaire was investigated by Lavshe method. The results were analyzed by the SPSS (16thversion) statistical software. The content validity ratio (CVR) of questionnaire was 76.13. The results showed that 28 percent of the participants had not any knowledge about AAC and 68 percent of them had little knowledge about these services. This result has obtained in situation that 96 percent of SLPs have been faced with clients who had little ability for communication. None of participants utilized high-tech AAC for his/her clients. 92 percent of participants keened opportunity for learning AAC. The results of this survey showed that the SLPs had limited knowledge of AAC services, so training SLPs in this field is necessary.