Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions are an empirically supported intervention approach for young autistic children. Despite the prevalence of disruptive behaviors among autistic children, most manualized caregiver-mediated naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions include limited formal guidance on when and how to manage…

Purpose of the Review: We review the evidence-based POWR intervention which provides training to communication partners to support children with complex communication needs (CCN) by teaching steps to support child communication: Prepare the activity and AAC, Offer opportunities for communication, Wait for the child's communication, and Respond to…

Many refugee children experience trauma in early childhood. Effective, tailored interventions are needed to improve refugee children's access to preventive mental health. We interviewed refugee-serving stakeholders and parents participating in an evidence-based preventive mental health and wellness intervention adapted for Afghan refugee children…

In order to better understand protective factors for internalizing problems, this longitudinal study examined positive emotions, emotion awareness and (non-)emotional communication skills in relation to somatic complaints and social anxiety in children with (N = 104) and without (N = 183) Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) using self-reported…

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…

Social communication difficulties are part of the core difficulties experienced by individuals with autism. Speech-language pathologists provide intervention and supports for these difficulties. Little is known about the own experiences and views of adults with autism about these services. Using semi-structured ethnographic interviewing,…

Background: Adolescents in contact with youth justice are a vulnerable and marginalized group at high risk of developmental language disorder (DLD) and other communication difficulties. Though preliminary studies have demonstrated the benefits of speech and language therapy (SLT) services in youth justice, limited research has empirically tested…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display social-communication deficits and present with rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior and/or interests (RRBIs). Compared to interventions for social-communication skills, less attention has been given to RRBIs, especially with regard to interventions for young children. We surveyed 128…

Background: Although language and communication difficulties are common in secondary school students, there has been limited research into the efficacy of interventions for adolescents with language and communication difficulties. Aims: To investigate the efficacy of teaching assistant (TA)-delivered narrative and vocabulary interventions to…

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…

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare anxiety disorder that impairs children's daily functioning, often during critical periods of early development. Given that schools are a common setting for mutism, it is vital that school-based practitioners are knowledgeable of recent advances in the SM treatment literature. Unfortunately, the literature base is…

Shortly after accepting my current position as a professor at the University of Connecticut in 1987, I was asked to meet a third-grade student who had not spoken a word in an educational setting for nearly 5 years. During preschool, kindergarten, and in the elementary grades, he was mute. However, in non-educational settings, although shy, he…

Family-centered practices that build caregiver capacity are a central focus of early intervention services for young children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of adapting the "Parents Interacting with Infants" (PIWI) facilitated playgroup model to target effective communication strategies for…

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…

One in four women will be victim/survivors of sexual assault by the time she graduates college (Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski 1988). In the decades since this shocking statistic was revealed colleges and universities have spent time, money, and resources to address sexual assault. Unfortunately, little has changed and it continues to be an epidemic…