In research, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions have primarily focused on teaching children to make requests (Logan et al., 2017); however, AAC intervention should not stop there. There is a dearth of AAC intervention research targeting other communicative functions, despite there being a significant need to enhance children’s communication competence in a variety of social and educational contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the initial efficacy and feasibility of an AAC narrative intervention on the picture-supported retelling skills of three children with autism, aged 6 to 9 years old. A new Story Champs AAC intervention was delivered in five steps using customized least-to-most prompt hierarchies. Stories for use with AAC were strategically designed to include three target words/symbols (one noun, one verb, and one modifier) and five basic story grammar parts. We measured the effect of 12 sessions of the intervention on children’s inclusion and complexity of story grammar elements and the variety of symbols used to retell untrained stories during a baseline condition, just before each intervention session, immediately following each intervention session, and three weeks after the last intervention session. The AAC narrative intervention improved children’s AAC retells, with ascending trends in the intervention condition and scores elevated above baseline after three weeks. Parents reported that they perceived the intervention to be appropriate, effective, enjoyable, and planned to use it themselves after the study. Generalized use of AAC outside of intervention sessions was documented for all three participants

Crowe, B., Machalicek, W., Wei, Q., Drew, C., & Ganz, J. (2021). Augmentative and alternative communication for children with intellectual and developmental disability: A mega-review of the literature. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 1-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-021-09790-0
Logan, K., Iacono, T., & Trembath, D. (2017). A systematic review of research into aided AAC to increase social-communication functions in children with autism spectrum disorder. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 33(1), 51-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2016.1267795 Petersen, D. B., Brown, C. L., Ukrainetz, T. A., Wise, C., Spencer, T. D., & Zebre, J. (2014). Systematic individualized narrative language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 45, 67-86. https://doi.org//10.1044/2013_LSHSS-12-0099 Soto, G., Solomon-Rice, P., & Caputo, M. (2009). Enhancing the personal narrative skills of elementary school-aged students who use AAC: The effectiveness of personal narrative intervention. Journal of Communication Disorders, 42(1), 43-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2008.08.001 Spencer, T. D., & Petersen, D. B. (2024). Story Champs Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Language Dynamics Group. www.languagedynamicsgroup.com