Problem: Upon their initial school entrance, some children remain silent and devoid of social interaction for the entire school day. A small group of children are not merely "very shy" but exhibit features of selective mutism, a pervasive social and communication disorder that is sometimes associated with anxiety. For months, these…

Purpose: Speech, language, and hearing professionals are mandated to provide culturally responsive services for individuals who hold multiple identities and may face unique challenges resulting from multiple discrimination and cumulative disadvantage. This study presents a thematic analysis of ethnographic interviews with an Indigenous Mayan…

Background: Communication is at the heart of relationships, especially for couples. When language is altered, as it is in aphasia, communication in couples can be affected. Aims: To explore how members of a couple perceive the impact of aphasia on their communication. Methods & Procedures: Nine French-speaking couples participated in the…

Clinical Question: Do caregivers of young children with communication disorders or children with delays/deficits in social-communication skills who participate in training and coaching on communication strategies via telepractice compared to those who participate in training and coaching on communication strategies in person show enhanced…

Purpose: Scientists in the speech, language, and hearing sciences rely on statistical analyses to help reveal complex relationships and patterns in the data collected from their research studies. However, data from studies in the fields of communication sciences and disorders rarely conform to the underlying assumptions of many traditional…

Purpose: Alternative service delivery approaches are required to provide support for children with communication difficulties in underserved communities. Schools have a unique set of assets that can be utilized to provide this support. This study explored what the education sector and classrooms in the early years of schooling offer as support for…

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…

Purpose: Working with students with emotional behavioral disorders is a challenging area of speech-language pathology practice. In this study, we compare and profile the narrative discourse, structural language, and social communication characteristics of adolescents attending behavioral support and mainstream schools. We also examine…

Purpose: Our aim was to develop consensus on the definition and operationalization of communicative participation (CP) in 2- to 8-year-old children with language disorders (LDs). A clear definition and operationalization can facilitate the discussion about children's communication problems in daily life between parents and professionals. Method:…

Many factors impact intervention implementation in everyday practice, including the social validity of these interventions. As a way of addressing social validity, this study aimed to understand the perspectives of multiple stakeholders of school-aged children and adolescents who use aided and unaided augmentative and alternative communication…

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related social-communication delays may display difficulties commenting on actions that occur in their natural environment. One method for increasing early conversation skills is direct instruction. Using video examples of actions may increase the salient features of instructional targets and,…

Given the linguistic and cognitive demands of communication, adult Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users with acquired communication disorders may have difficulty using AAC systems consistently and effectively in "real-life" situations. The process of recommending AAC systems and strategies is an area of exploration,…

This article is concerned with the oral language demands (both talking and listening) associated with restorative justice conferencing--an inherently highly verbal and conversational process. Many vulnerable young people (e.g., those in the youth justice system) have significant, yet unidentified language impairments, and these could compromise…

Providing effective interventions for individuals with severe intellectual disabilities (ID) continues to challenge educators, speech-language pathologists, and other allied health professionals. This article reviews recommended intervention practices that have emerged over the past 30 years and illustrates their use through an evidenced-based…

There is a continuing interest in the link between communication difficulties and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). The literature indicates that speech and language therapy (SLT) can be effective, but there is also evidence that the communication needs of children with SEBD are likely to go undetected. Little is known about…