Student
Kasandra Hernandez
Files
Cohort
2018-2019
Biography
Kasandra was born in New York City but was raised in Orlando, Florida. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Communications Sciences and disorders. Prior to that she received her AA degree at Valencia Community College. Her early encounters with communication disorders through family interactions led her to choose this field. She is participating in a research study that is funded by the National Institute of Health, she also works closely with Dr. Kent- Walsh teaching preschoolers with communicative disorder to use augmentative and alternative communication through iPad applications. Her goal for her next research project is to work with a different group of people with possible issues that may arise in being bilingual. She hopes to gain more experience in many areas across her field.
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Jennifer Kent-Walsh PhD, S-LP(C), CCC-SLP, ASHA Fellow CCC-SLP, ASHA Fellow
Undergraduate Major
Communications Sciences and Disorders
Future Plans
To receive a Master’s Degree in Communications Sciences and Disorders
Profile Links
https://works.bepress.com/kasandra-hernandez/
Keywords
AAC, Pre-literate Pre-schoolers, Developing children
Recommended Citation
Hernandez, Kasandra, "Kasandra Hernandez" (2019). UCF Research and Mentoring Program Scholars. 99.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ramp_gallery/99
Research
Title: Error Patterns in Early Sentence Productions of 5-Year-Old Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies provide communication options for individuals with severe speech impairments who are unable to meet all of their communication needs using natural speech. AAC options include increasingly popular iPad apps specifically designed to allow individuals to formulate and deliver messages through voice output. Prior research has demonstrated the effectiveness of interventions designed to teach pre-literate children to use picture symbols within AAC iPad apps to communicate grammatically accurate sentences (e.g., Binger et al, 2017; Kent-Walsh et al., 2015). Such preliminary findings also suggest that children with different profiles in their understanding of language may demonstrate varying learning trajectories. The present investigation was designed to characterize the learning patterns of children with typical language comprehension skills by examining error patterns before, during, and after participation in an evidence-based intervention designed to target the production of specific grammatical structures using an AAC app. This descriptive investigation was completed in the context of a larger intervention study involving multiple cohorts of 5-year-old children with speech impairments. Coding was completed to describe the self-corrections and error types demonstrated by six participants using an AAC app across investigational phases (baseline, intervention, generalization & maintenance).