Influence of length of augmented message on children's attitudes toward Peers who use augmentative and alternative communication

The influence of conversational phrase length on the attitudes of two groups of grade-schoolaged children (i.e., those familiar and unfamiliar with children with disabilities) was studied. Length did not influence the attitudes of familiar children but did influence the attitudes of unfamiliar children in grades 3 and 5. The unfamiliar children who saw a videotape of a child communicating with two- to four-word augmented messages had more positive attitude responses than did the children who saw a videotape of a child communicating with one-word augmented messages. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

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