Native American tribes and families are highly pluralistic in their ideologies, beliefs, traditions, and values. Very little research has described the parenting and child-rearing beliefs of Native American caregivers. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of Native American caregivers' developmental priorities and preferences…

This paper discusses the referential communication model, offers explanations for communication failure, presents evidence that even older elementary school children have difficulty in detecting ambiguity in messages, argues the need for a standardized test in this area, and surveys work with language-impaired groups and approaches to…

This paper discusses issues and research questions about facilitated communication that emerge from examining separately its components of physical touch and the written word. It describes the experiences of two adolescents (diagnosed as autistic and severely retarded) with facilitated communication, the role of touch as a teaching method, and the…

The validity of facilitated communication's effects are viewed from three perspectives, labeled as the plausible perspective, which is unexpected literacy; the skeptical perspective, which claims that social-communicative variables unintentionally influence intervention outcomes; and the enigmatic perspective, which neither rejects outright the…

A review of the literature regarding the training of parents as language facilitators for young language-handicapped children includes a description of the University of South Carolina Parent Training Program, which offers short-term training in desirable interactive styles, elicitation of appropriate language, and language facilitative…

This article proposes the application of a situated pragmatics (also known as community-based training or activity-based intervention) approach to intervention with children having severe communication disorders. Models for this approach have been developed by the World Health Organization and specialists in alternative and augmentative…

This paper views effective communication as an essential component of appropriate social behavior, provides definitions and conceptualizations of social skills and social competence within academic contexts, and describes social skills assessment and intervention procedures for school-age children and youth with and without disabilities.…

This article describes the communication characteristics and needs of adults with severe mental retardation and discusses a transactional approach to intervention for adults who do not communicate symbolically in any mode. The approach promotes communication skill development by considering communicative acts as critical antecedent and consequent…

Community reentry programing for individuals with head injuries should involve cognitive retraining integrated into a social skills context. Combining ecological validity with a social skills approach provides a real-world, client-centered approach and a systematic philosophical framework upon which assessment, treatment, and outcome evaluation…

Case studies are presented of three individuals with severe communication impairments who had been judged to be intellectually impaired but revealed unexpected achievements after training in nonspeech communication. The communication training used facilitation to circumvent hand function impairments. (JDD)

This paper describes the facilitated communication method of assisting individuals with autism to type their thoughts and presents a study involving 43 individuals (ages 3-26) who were trained in facilitated communication. A seemingly normal quality of language was produced but did not result in the eradication of other autistic-like behaviors.…

This paper discusses the use of facilitated communication training with individuals labeled as intellectually impaired, including individuals diagnosed as autistic, at the DEAL Communication Centre in Victoria, Australia. The paper describes the clients, hand use problems addressed by facilitation, literacy, structuring success, fading support,…

A brief description of aspects of Arabic culture that may affect the effectiveness of language intervention is followed by descriptions of Arabic child-rearing practices, attitudes toward disabilities, nonverbal communication, communication style, difficulties experienced in learning English, and suggestions for clinicians working with…

After describing the principles of culturally compatible education, the characteristics of Native American and mainstream narrative discourse are compared, and teaching the structure, content, and style of mainstream narratives is advocated. A program designed to facilitate Native American elementary school children's abilities to comprehend and…