Response Time of Young Children With Complex Communication Needs Following a Communication Opportunity

Children with complex communication needs (CCN) who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) often need more time to process and respond when communicating with others. This study employed a survival analysis approach exploring child response-time patterns following different communication opportunities for young children with CCN who use AAC. The results showed a median of 1.87 s response time with significant individual variability. Children took less time to communicate following a choice or a question than following a comment. AAC modeling was also associated with shorter response times. Additionally, the more opportunities that occurred without a child response, the longer child response time tended to be. Our findings suggest that if the child does not make a response attempt, instead of repeating communication opportunities, communication partners should consistently wait and use questions and choices along with modeling to increase child communication.