Constituent order in picture pointing sequences produced by speaking children using AAC

Children using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) picture boa rds often produce sequences of symbols that do not reflect the grammatical structure of the language spoken in their environment. These irregularities may reflect an incomplete or incorrect representation of linguistic struct ure. Alternatively, they may simply be the result of constraints on the com munication mode itself. This study examined constituent order and deletion in picture board communication in children who are known to have intact lin guistic knowledge (i.e., normally developing native speakers of English). T he results suggest that English syntactic knowledge is not automatically ap plied to picture board communication. Additional skills may be required to transpose linguistic knowledge into the visual-graphic modality used in AAC systems. Moreover, the regularity of non-English responses suggests that t here is a bias for specific structures in visual communication systems.