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A statewide survey was conducted in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Center of Harrisburg to determine the needs, priorities, and preferences of mothers and fathers with young children between the ages of 3 and 12 years who use assistive devices to overcome severe speaking and writing impairments. Ninety-one parents (i.e., 56 mothers and 35 fathers) representing 59 families responded to this survey. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Both mothers and fathers shared needs for increasing knowledge of assistive devices and planning for future communication needs. Mothers also indicated needs for integrating assistive devices in the community, developing community awareness and support for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users, getting computer access, finding trained professionals, and finding advocacy groups among their priorities. Among the fathers' priorities were needs for finding volunteers to work with their child, getting funding for devices or services, knowing how to teach their child, and integrating assistive devices at home. Implications for family-based assessment and intervention practices in AAC are discussed.
Angelo et al. (Sun,) studied this question.