London Bubbles Speech Bubbles programme supports young children who are struggling to communicate in the classroom. This paper describes the slew of evaluation and research that has been undertaken on the project and explores some of the learning that has happened as we have moved out of our comfort zone of qualitative approaches to evaluation to…

Collaborative early intervention (EI) service delivery is enhanced by professional development focused on knowledge and skills in the content and process of delivering services. This article describes a multicomponent online professional development course designed to build infant toddler specialists' capacity to support children with…

Research on graphic symbol learning suggests that symbols with a greater visual resemblance to their referents (greater iconicity) are more easily learned. The iconicity hypothesis has not yet been explored within the intervention protocol of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Within the PECS protocol, participants do not point to a…

Brief case studies of three projects are presented to illustrate the steps which open "Wonderful Programs" to evaluation research. The evaluator is provided with the perspective needed to believe the evaluation is worth doing. The project staff is then redirected to the need for a new type of evidence. An ongoing review of the commitment…

One of the most prevailing characteristics of children with autism is their deficit in social communication skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-mediated social skills training (SST) program combined with video feedback, positive reinforcement and token system in increasing social communication skills in…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of pyramidal training with direct care staff in group homes. Training focused on teaching staff how to provide opportunities for communication to non-speaking children with developmental disabilities to communicate. Staff were taught through a combination of a workshop, and nondirective consultation following…

Using an evaluation of a hospital-based hospice as a case study, this paper analyzes problematic issues surrounding health care teams (HCTs) in light of findings revealed in the literature concerning HCT structures and processes. The factors of coordination and role definitions in HCTs and their manifestations in a particular hospice HCT in terms…

An innovative instructional program designed to improve children's skills in referential communication, especially in communicating descriptions and instructions, is evaluated. Insights gained into classroom organization and the teacher's level of adoption of the innovation are discussed. (MSE)

Describes an evaluation of a home-school support project designed to improve the behavior of young children in danger of school exclusion. Concludes that, although the initiative was valued, effective operation of the initiative was hampered by problems of communication, by its single agency location, and by the short-term nature of its funding.…

To address the special second language learning needs of deaf college students, a project was undertaken at Gallaudet University (District of Columbia), the world's only four-year liberal arts university for the deaf, to create 36 videotaped lessons in grammar, signed in American Sign Language, for first-year French and Spanish instruction. The…

This report describes the following four areas of compliance in the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) public school Remedial Plan for Services to Asian Limited English Proficiency students: (1) vocational support services; (2) Welcome Centers; (3) communications; and (4) overage youth. Data were obtained through interviews with key program personnel,…