Interactions between youth with cognitive disabilities and unfamiliar adult partners were observed during a "standard partner" condition to discern the effects of the use of an augmentative and alternative communication system on communication patterns. Thirteen individuals who used the System for Augmenting Language (SAL) were compared to…

Published articles about assistive technology (AT) from 1980 through 2004 were reviewed to identify those that focused on infants and young children. A total of 104 articles about AT with infants and toddlers were identified, and of these, 23 reported practices for teaching switch activation (12), computer use (6), power mobility skills (4), or…

Background: The ComFor (Forerunners in Communication) is an instrument to explore underlying competence for augmentative communication. More specifically, it measures perception and sense-making of non-transient forms of communication at the levels of presentation and representation. The target group consists primarily of individuals with autism…

Purpose: This study examined the cognitive demands of 2 selection techniques in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), direct selection, and visual linear scanning, by determining the memory retrieval abilities of typically developing children when presented with fixed communication displays. Method: One hundred twenty typical children…

This text explains the phenomenon of facilitated communication (FC) from an empirical, data-based, and/or clinical perspective. It is not a how-to-facilitate text, but one that explores the clinical and sociological reality of FC. A common theme running through each of the papers in the book is the question of FC's legitimacy. The papers reveal…

This article describes an intervention study designed to enhance the skills needed in the planning and writing of stories by an adolescent with autism who was using augmentative and alternative communication and working with a typical peer. Overall, the student's postintervention story was dramatically improved over his preintervention story.…

This article describes an integrated augmentative and alternative communication and literacy intervention program developed for five adults with autism in a supported employment facility. Three detailed case studies describe approaches used with project participants who had emerging, beginning, and more advanced levels of communication and…

This article introduces six articles on speech language pathology with children with autism spectrum disorder. Discussion briefly considers diagnosis, early indicators, assessment, augmentative and alternative communication, behavioral techniques, and social perspective taking. (Contains references.) (DB)

This commentary on Steven Heckler (EC 608 725) reviews qualitative and quantitative studies of facilitated communication (FC), and examines FC and sexual abuse allegations involving individuals with autism. It concludes that the mounting evidence against FC is convincing but that FC should not be eliminated as a possible augmentative communication…

Four students (ages 9-17) with autism and severe mental retardation were shown cards with fill-in or short-answer questions or blank cards and responded using facilitated communication. Although 95% of the responses were correct when the facilitator knew which item was presented, only 19% were correct when the facilitator was unaware of the…

This paper examines the evidence on whether facilitated communication (FC) enables people with disabilities to demonstrate unexpected skills, considering the efficacy of FC (including both objective and descriptive evidence), other research questions, theoretical issues, ethics, and acrimony. It concludes that the benefits of the practice have not…

A study evaluated the effects of a voice output communication aid (VOCA) and naturalistic teaching procedures on the communicative interactions of four children (ages 3-5) with autism. Children showed increases in communicative interactions using VOCAs. There was no apparent reductive effect of VOCA use on other communicative behaviors. (Author/CR)

This study examined representational matching to sample with 68 subjects with severe mental retardation. Participants differed in their expressive communication and included symbolic (speaking) individuals, distal-gesture users, and contact-gesture users. Contact-gesture users performed significantly more poorly on identical matching to sample…

A multiple baseline study evaluated effects of using voice output devices to facilitate communicative initiation behaviors of two young nonverbal children with developmental delays. Both children increased their specific initiations and decreased unclear initiations and adult prompted communication behaviors. Results support the use of…

This article considers the purposes of preoperative psychological assessment of cochlear implant candidates, addressing the issues of candidate selection, exclusion, and readiness. Aspects of motivation and informed consent as well as ethical issues are also considered, and specific assessment methodologies, including questionnaires, interviews,…