Effect of a Brief Mobile Training to Teach Preservice Professionals to Implement Literacy Instruction for Children who use AAC

<b>Purpose:</b> Literacy is a powerful communication tool for people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and yet many individuals enter adulthood without learning to read. Professionals often lack adequate training in the provision of literacy instruction for AAC users. This study investigated the effectiveness of a brief mobile training to teach preservice professionals to implement decoding instruction to support single word reading.<br><b>Method:</b> A pretest-posttest experimental group design was implemented to investigate the effects of a self-paced mobile training to teach the procedures of decoding instruction to children who may benefit from AAC. Participants were randomly assigned to either the control group (no training) or the experimental group (training group). All participants completed two role-play interactions in which they were asked to provide decoding instruction (i.e., pretest and posttest). The experimental group engaged with the training and a checklist prior to the posttest session, while the control group did not. Social validity measures were completed by the experimental group only.<br><b>Results</b>: Following completion of the training, preservice professionals in the experimental group showed significant gains with the implementation of decoding instructional procedures compared to the control group who did not. Participants rated the training app as easy to use and effective for learning to provide literacy instruction.<br><b>Conclusion:</b> These findings indicate that a brief mobile training may provide an efficient, effective, and socially valid approach to improving professional competencies in the delivery of adapted literacy instruction for those who benefit from AAC. Future research is needed to determine the effectiveness of this training app with in-service professionals and other communication partners of AAC users.