PARENT'S PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF PARENT SUPPORT GROUPS IN REDUCING STRESS CAUSED BY CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO AAC IMPLEMENTATION: A CASE STUDY

Parents and primary caregivers of children who use augmentative and alternative (AAC) systems have authority over decision-making regarding the use or disuse of their child's AAC system by nature of the child's dependence and complex communication needs. Hence, parents' vital role in the success or abandonment of their child's AAC system highlights the significance of effective parent support. This study recognized that given a parent's influence over their child's AAC use, their stress levels, challenges, and concerns regarding the increased use of AAC at school and in the home should be examined. The research objectives of this study were to (a) identify challenges and barriers to AAC implementation that have the potential to cause stress and (b) explore parent/primary caregiver perceptions of the role of parent support groups in reducing such stress and increasing acceptance of AAC through semi-structured interviews. Due to the current need of AAC research to represent the perspective of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, English speaking and Spanish speaking parents were sought out for recruitment. The research study's expected outcomes are to (a) provide valuable information to other AAC stakeholders like speech-language pathologists in how to better support parents in AAC implementation (2) inform other parents/primary caregivers unfamiliar with parent support groups about parent perceptions of the role of parent support groups in reducing stress caused by challenges and barrier to AAC implementation.