What % of autistics would benefit from communication device?

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I'm trying to figure this out and I can't find any good references.

Basically, I want a rough percentage of people on "the autism spectrum" (including AS, autism, PDDNOS, etc.) who are either non-verbal or have intermittent speech, and who would benefit from using some kind of communication technology. That excludes sign language but not low-tech stuff like PECS, and includes kids who are speech delayed and use AAC equipment before learning verbal communication. It also includes people who may only learn very basic things like a yes/no switch.

Any ideas on where I might find info like that, or is it not yet available anywhere?

I know that the majority of individuals with Autistic Disorder gain adequate speech as adults.

I also recall a statistic that 20% of those with Autistic Disorder are deemed as nonverbal as adults (even though they may have a couple of words, and they try to communicate via gibberish or echolalia); the rest have adequate communication ability.

These two facts from my memory seem to support one another.

I like to think i have good speech, but sometimes it's much easier to express myself with text messages or emails.
However, the old fasioned pen and paper is useless to me, as my handwriting is VERY bad and slow.

I doubt such a reference exists covering the various shades of verbal difficulty in ASD. It might be worth contacting some clinicians and organisations to see what percentage they would estimate. Other than that or conducting a study/survey, I don't know what to suggest.

Callista,
don't know how many would need to be a good representation [seeing as they never survey all autistics on anything] but what about contacting as many DD residential homes and autistic day centres throughout the country,and seeing if they'll give out that information?
In the UK,are able to get residential home details from CSCI [or whatever they call themselves now],but for some reason not all of them are on it-is there no local equivilent to CSCI? that would save self some effort if were going to go ahead with it.


The least used method here in LD/DD homes and day centres seems to be hi tech [tts],but guessing that is more so because it's not widely known or taught in staff training [they will think of steven hawking,but thats it],and some staff think non verbalism/speech impairment is just another word for intellectual disability,so puts a chance to learn hi tech communication out of reach to many,the NAS are different though-they have taught profoundly autistic s/users to communicate via TTS.

The other problem with high-tech AAC is that devices such as Dynavox tend to cost $10,000 or more. Some people with good technical knowledge are able to cobble together systems themselves for less money (still probably well over a thousand dollars though and they wouldn't be as durable), and obviously there are more options available if the person can read than if they are reliant on symbols, or if the person doesn't need such a durable device and can make do with a regular laptop/tablet PC (note: do not try this with most children).

Remember that a communication device for a child will be exposed to sand, water, gravel, spilled juice, being dropped, etc., so you really need specialized equipment that can handle that kind of rough treatment. The other drawback of a laptop is that the software on it is not solely specialized for AAC- there is more flexibility for what you can do with it, but it is also much less stable. So laptop systems have several drawbacks for AAC users, although they are much cheaper.

Wow, this post got a little tangential. I worked with autistic kids during a five-month internship finishing out grad school, and if you can't tell, I spent a lot of time brainstorming cheaper ways to get high-tech systems for the kids there, since the process of getting a grant for a $10,000 device is lengthy to say the least.

Yeah. Cost is really a big factor. Add to that the fact that many people's needs will change as their communication ability becomes more complex, and you either have to buy a flexible device that can change, or buy multiple ones. You can't very well stay with three buttons and three sentences when you are capable of producing sentences with a few-hundred word vocab... but apparently a lot of people do.

Found a study that said 12% of 2-year-olds with autism and atypical autism were still non-verbal at nine years old. No news on what percentage of the autism spectrum they were talking about. PDDNOS is a big category, but it's also really vague and undefined.

Re. making your own device: A low-end used laptop and a free text to speech program costs no more than $150, but they have extreme drawbacks; laptops don't have good sound, their batteries won't last very long, they take forever to boot up, they tend to overheat... Certainly not a kid friendly option, and not the best for an adult, either.

Low-tech systems are simpler, sturdier, and some are easier to modify. However, I think the single biggest factor for their use is their low cost; and that's a problem because when price is the main factor, it's very likely that people aren't getting the most useful system for them.

The inexpensive communication device is definitely an interesting engineering problem. Maybe one day I will solve it.