PURPOSE Previous research has shown that many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) lack confidence in conducting augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) evaluations. The AAC Clinical Assessment Project team developed a protocol to help guide SLPs to complete AAC assessments for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This article describes the creation and content validation of the protocol. METHOD Two studies were conducted. The first study developed the content of the protocol using information from previous research, observation of two AAC clinical specialists, and interviews with these specialists. In the second study, five specialists in AAC and ASD provided content validation by rating the appropriateness of each item in the protocol. Advisory group meetings were held with the specialists to discuss how to edit the protocol based on the survey results. RESULTS The final protocol contains a description of each area to be assessed, a rationale for assessing it, and suggested methods to conduct the assessment. CONCLUSIONS The final version of the protocol has excellent content validity. Future research will evaluate the feasibility of using the protocol in clinical practice and whether using the protocol improves the clinical decision making of SLPs when planning AAC assessments. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27156207.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系儿童的增强和替代沟通评估：协议开发和内容验证。


目的 先前的研究表明，许多语言病理学家 （SLP） 对进行增强和替代通信 （AAC） 评估缺乏信心。AAC 临床评估项目团队制定了一项协议，以帮助指导 SLP 完成对自闭症谱系障碍 （ASD） 儿童的 AAC 评估。本文介绍了协议的创建和内容验证。方法 进行了 2 项研究。第一项研究使用先前研究的信息、对两名 AAC 临床专家的观察以及与这些专家的访谈来开发协议的内容。在第二项研究中，五位 AAC 和 ASD 专家通过对方案中每个项目的适当性进行评级来提供内容验证。与专家举行了咨询小组会议，讨论如何根据调查结果编辑方案。结果 最终方案包含对每个要评估的领域的描述、评估的基本原理以及进行评估的建议方法。结论 该协议的最终版本具有出色的内容效度。未来的研究将评估在临床实践中使用该方案的可行性，以及在规划 AAC 评估时使用该方案是否能改善 SLP 的临床决策。补充材料 https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27156207。