Stay-Play-Talk (SPT) is a peer-mediated intervention used to increase social interactions between preschoolers with developmental disabilities and typically developing (TD) peers. This intervention has been found to be successful in increasing play and reciprocal conversation amongst children with and without disabilities. The following describes…

For families and educators, understanding and working with children who experience a combination of deafness and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be challenging. Yet both understanding and work are crucial. For children with ASD to succeed, parents and educators need to understand them and to be able to work together to implement successful…

The papers in this special issue provide support for continued scrutiny of interactional competence (IC) as an important component of the speaking construct. The contributions underscore the complex nature of IC and remind us of the multiple factors that affect any construct definition. At the same time, each study offers insights into those…

An open mind--the willingness to consider experiences, beliefs, values, perspectives, etc. that differ from one's own--allows the learner to explore how diverse people across the world think and act. Open-mindedness creates opportunities to rethink assumptions, identify misinformation, and consider alternative ways to make decisions.…

We examine a generalization of the one-dimensional Ising model involving interactions among neighbourhoods of "k" adjacent spins. The model is solved by exploiting a connection to an interesting computational problem that we call ""k"-SAT on a ring", and is shown to be equivalent to the nearest-neighbour Ising model in the absence of an external…

Many students with complex disabilities (e.g., moderate and severe disabilities, autism spectrum disorder) require explicit instruction in social skills in order to respond to and initiate interaction with their peers. This article reviews the research on developing social skills groups to teach peer interactions for students with complex special…

Research indicates that peer interaction can have a substantial impact on the lives of adolescents with disabilities. However, social interaction among adolescents with intellectual disabilities and their general education peers typically occurs infrequently in secondary schools. This paper provides a critical analysis of twenty-six empirical…

This paper describes the development and use of language training procedures, referred to as cues-pause-point procedures, that rely on behavioral principles and simple and natural teaching procedures and that are exhibited in many normal parent-child or teacher-student verbal interactions. The procedures have been effective in teaching severely…