a Leeds Institute of Health Sciences , University of Leeds , Leeds , UK.
b Faculty of Health Psychology and Social Care , Manchester Metropolitan University , Manchester , UK.
Augment Altern Commun. 2019 Jun;35(2):80-94. doi: 10.1080/07434618.2018.1561750. Epub 2019 Feb 15.
The choice of which AAC device to provide for a child can have long lasting consequences, but little is known about the decision-making of AAC professionals who make recommendations in this context. A survey was conducted with AAC professionals using best-worst scaling methodology examining what characteristics of children and attributes of AAC devices are considered most important in decision-making. A total of 19 child characteristics and 18 device attributes were selected by the authors from lists generated from literature reviews and from focus groups with AAC professionals, people who use AAC, and other stakeholders. The characteristics and attributes were used to develop two best-worst scaling surveys that were administered to 93 AAC professionals based in the UK. The relative importance of characteristics/attributes was estimated using statistical modelling. Child characteristics related to language and communication, cognitive and learning abilities, and personality traits were generally found to be more important than physical features. Communication, language, and interface-related AAC device attributes were generally more important than hardware and physical attributes. Respondent demographics (e.g., experience, professional background) did not seem to influence the importance assigned to device characteristics or attributes. Findings may inform both future quantitative research into decision-making and efforts to improve decision-making in practice.
为孩子选择哪种 AAC 设备可能会产生长期影响，但对于在这种情况下做出建议的 AAC 专业人员的决策过程却知之甚少。本研究采用最佳最差标度法对 AAC 专业人员进行了一项调查，以了解在决策过程中，哪些儿童特征和 AAC 设备属性被认为是最重要的。作者从文献综述和与 AAC 专业人员、使用 AAC 的人员以及其他利益相关者的焦点小组中生成的列表中选择了 19 个儿童特征和 18 个设备属性。这些特征和属性被用于开发两项最佳最差标度调查，共对 93 名英国的 AAC 专业人员进行了调查。使用统计建模来估计特征/属性的相对重要性。与语言和沟通、认知和学习能力以及个性特征相关的儿童特征通常比身体特征更为重要。与通信、语言和界面相关的 AAC 设备属性通常比硬件和物理属性更为重要。受访者的人口统计学特征（例如经验、专业背景）似乎并未影响对设备特征或属性的重要性的评估。研究结果可能为未来的决策制定定量研究以及改善实践中的决策制定提供信息。
