AAC & Literacy: A Scoping Review of Print Knowledge Measures for Students Who Use Aided Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Understanding the early literacy abilities of children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is essential for designing and testing methods of reading intervention focused on printed orthography. School-based professionals need assessments that measure word reading skills of students with heterogenous speech and physical abilities. This scoping review describes the assessment and administration procedures in research studies that have been used to measure the print knowledge of students who use aided AAC. This review included 27 studies that described print knowledge assessments targeting awareness of print concepts, letter identification, letter-sound correspondence, print-based phonological awareness, decoding, or sight word recognition that was administered to at least one student who uses aided AAC. Participant characteristics, measures of print knowledge, as well as contexts and features of assessment format and administration were coded. Our review identified 27 studies in which 155 students who used aided AAC participated in assessments of print knowledge. Most assessments measured students' decoding and sight word recognition skills with little attention toward awareness of print concepts and print-based phonological awareness. A range of procedures were identified across studies. More than 40% of assessments included a format or response method to participate that was not comparable to participants' typical communication method. Research should continue to develop and test assessments that are accessible for students with physical and communication support needs that require AAC. In doing so, these tools may be used with all students, regardless of speech ability, to understand early literacy skills that inform individualized reading instruction.