My point of view: Students with intellectual and communicative disabilities express their views on speech and reading using Talking Mats

Background: It can be challenging for people with intellectual disabilities to convey their thoughts and opinions because of cognitive, speech and language impairments. Consequently, facilitating their ability to communicate using augmentative and alternative communication methods is essential. The picture-based framework Talking Mats has been applied in many studies and has been shown to be successful in facilitating communication and soliciting views from individuals with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties. The aim of this study was to describe the views of students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties on speech and reading activities and to examine whether valence scores (from negative to positive) on these views were associated with performance on tests of their corresponding abilities. Methods: This is a cross-sectional quantitative survey study. A group of 111 students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties aged 7-21 were interviewed about their speech and reading activities using the visual framework Talking Mats. Their answers were scored on a three-grade like-dislike continuum and were correlated with their results on adapted tests of the corresponding abilities. Findings: The students expressed their views on speech and reading activities. The scored views on speech were positively associated with speech production, and the scored views on reading activities were positively related to reading ability. This suggests that their opinions as expressed through Talking Mats were consistent and reliable. Conclusions: Most students with intellectual disabilities and communicative difficulties can reliably express their own opinions of their abilities when they are provided with a clear visual structure and pictorial support, such as Talking Mats. In this study, this was seen for students with a mild intellectual disability from age seven and onwards and for students with a more severe intellectual disability from 12 years of age and onwards.