The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to summarize relevant research and Internet resources to update families, special education professionals, and researchers on what is currently known related to assistive technology and secondary transition procedures. Information is provided on the following topics: (1) assistive technology and…

This volume provides a comprehensive and in-depth handbook of qualitative research in the field of communication disorders. It introduces and illustrates the wide range of qualitative paradigms that have been used in recent years to investigate various aspects of communication disorders. The first part of the Handbook introduces in some detail the…

Through contributions from top leaders in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), "Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder" examines the ASD research literature, discusses procedural implications, and makes recommendations for future practice and inquiry. It combines the most recent developments in established practices with newer and…

The current study investigated the effectiveness of an integrated word identification and communication intervention for children with complex communication needs. Using a nonconcurrent, multiple baseline design, the study involved three participants who completed 75 lessons across 4 to 6 weeks of instruction. All three participants improved their…

Augmentative and alternative communication is a compilation of methods and technology designed to supplement spoken communication for people with limited speech or language skills, including children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The field of AAC has evolved rapidly within the last 10 years, due to a combination of empirical…

This paper addresses questions raised about the validity of facilitated communication with autistic individuals and others having severe disabilities and offers examples from the authors' program to support the validity of facilitated communication. Published studies showing a high rate of unfounded claims of abuse under facilitated communication…

This study, with 96 sales clerks, examined conversational trade-offs with customers using augmentative or alternative communication (AAC) in scripted videotaped conversational conditions. The clerks rated the conditions involving slowly delivered relevant messages higher than quickly delivered partly relevant messages. Also, messages preceded by a…

This response to Green and Shane (EC 609 759) and Biklen and Duchan (EC 609 760) on facilitated communication (FC) with people having severe disabilities addresses the importance of evaluating FC from a variety of research traditions; of focusing on the practical issues of families, teachers, and clinicians; and of solving the issue of authorship.…

This study assessed the criterion validity of the photographic adaptive communication device (ACD) used in Oklahoma to interview individuals with developmental disabilities receiving services. The back-translation process identified photographs that were frequently incorrectly identified resulting in revision of the ACD for greater validity.…

Forty 3-year-olds learned either 12 standard Blissymbols (SBS) or their enhanced forms (EBS). Results demonstrated that the subjects learned EBS faster than SBS, remembered more EBS than SBS, did not differ in the communicative use of SBS and EBS, and were affected more negatively when presented with the untrained SBS than EBS. (Author/JDD)

This study investigated whether discourse context affected the intelligibility of synthesized sentences for young adult and older adult listeners. Findings indicated a significant facilitating effect of context wherein previous words and sentences are related to later sentences for both listener groups. Results have direct implications for…

This study compared the speech of 20 children with prelinguistic deafness who wore cochlear implants when the device was on and when the device had been off for several hours. On average, no differences in speaking conditions were found on such parameters as indices of vowel height, vowel place, initial consonant voicing, or final consonant…

This study examined the frequency and nature of augmented input that adult partners provided to 13 youth with moderate to severe mental retardation as they began to use the System for Augmenting Language. Analyses revealed differences in the frequency and in the manner and style with which home and school partners provided augmented input.…

Facilitated communication (FC) as an augmentative or alternative communication system was evaluated with 14 students having autism. At the end of 10 weeks of instruction, no participants were able to produce functional, typed communication, thereby failing to support the cause-effect relationship proposed by FC proponents. (DB)

In the first of 2 studies, 7 subjects with severe mental retardation (ages 6-20) using augmentative communication produced untaught symbol combinations resembling those of young speaking language learners. The second study found that modeled combinations did not resemble the subjects' productions, suggesting the augmented communicators used…