Abstract for presentation at 6th World Congress on Brain Injury

Communication is crucial and is a greatr challenge to learning and functioning for many children with brain injury. Printed-pictorial boards have always been used as a means of training for nonverbal children with brain injury. According to some studies, pictorial boards could improve students' communication skills (Stiebel, 1999; Lancioni, 1983). Children could also generalize the pictorial communication means from trained activities to untrained activities (Schwartz, Garfinkle, & Bauer, 1998). Today, with advanced technology, the emerging of World Wide Web (WWW) is shaping our communication means. Different authors (e.g. Andrews, 2002) found that advancements in WWW and tailor-made software can be applied in cognitive skill training for children with verbal communication dysfunction. Web-based resources allow therapists to readily retrieve resources to meet the children's treatment needs, and thus enhance the usability and accessibility of customized programmes.
This paper reviewed the effectiveness of a newly developed web-based pictorial assistive and augmentative communication system (WPAAC) for brain injured children with non-verbal communication needs. The WPAAC allows the trainers to download multimedia pictorial files to compose a customized communication board for individual child either in computer-assisted or printed format. A single-case field test was conducted for initial testing of the functionality and usability of the WPAAC. Recommendations were suggested to improve the system's design and its applicability for children with brain injury.