title: Trends in communicative access solutions for children with cerebral palsy.
abstract: Access solutions may facilitate communication in children with limited functional speech and motor control. This study reviews current trends in access solution development for children with cerebral palsy, with particular emphasis on the access technology that harnesses a control signal from the user (eg, movement or physiological change) and the output device (eg, augmentative and alternative communication system) whose behavior is modulated by the user's control signal. Access technologies have advanced from simple mechanical switches to machine vision (eg, eye-gaze trackers), inertial sensing, and emerging physiological interfaces that require minimal physical effort. Similarly, output devices have evolved from bulky, dedicated hardware with limited configurability, to platform-agnostic, highly personalized mobile applications. Emerging case studies encourage the consideration of access technology for all nonverbal children with cerebral palsy with at least nascent contingency awareness. However, establishing robust evidence of the effectiveness of the aforementioned advances will require more expansive studies.
authors.affiliation: Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Myrden
authors.affiliation: Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schudlo
authors.affiliation: Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weyand
authors.affiliation: Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zeyl
authors.affiliation: Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada tom.chau@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chau
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000150:complications*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013672:Technology / Q000295:instrumentation
keywords: access technology; cerebral palsy; children; communication