Partner Goal
When observing Kevin and his interactions with his parents, it is clearly an area of communication that could see improvement. However, the AAC team needs to determine how to assist his parents now that he is using the AAC device, an iPad application, to communicate. The reasoning behind focusing on his parents and their interaction with Kevin is due to the fact that within the larger field of study, the goals are shifting away from simply being instruction-based to creating a culture of success around the individual (Gersten, Vaughn, Deshler, & Schiller, 1997). This focus means that Kevin’s success is not simply based upon his performance with the AAC device, but his success is also rooted in a culture of encouragement and support from those closest to him, which would be his parents during this season of life.
Thus, within the situation surrounding Kevin and his family, the AAC team needs to determine the most functional goal for his parents in order to improve the quality of Kevin’s interactions with them. It would be advisable to focus on limiting the amount of communication breakdowns that occur. One study of parents with children who have autism spectrum disorder
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According to Binger and Kent-Walsh (2012), it is helpful to focus on small and very specific contexts and then generalize to other contexts. Thus, for the purpose of this intervention for Kevin, it is advisable for the AAC team to focus on a task or skill that is readily adjustable and can then be generalized to other contexts. The goal for this intervention is that Kevin’s parents will pause for at least five seconds and allow time for Kevin to communicate using a multimodal approach, through speech, his iPad, and gestures, across contexts (e.g. home) with 80% accuracy of waiting until he