Describes a case study of a young man with autism, also previously diagnosed with mental retardation and apraxia, who communicated using speech, sign language, facilitated communication, body language, and his mother's conversational supports. Participant observation, interviews, and records' review illustrate his preference for speaking and the…

Summarizes progress made in meeting the communication needs of individuals with severe disabilities. Evidence is presented that supports best practices in the selection of: communicative functions, communicative modes and symbols, and instructional formats. The importance of social motivations for behavior and use of advances in augmentative…

This article focuses on the speech language pathologist's (SLP) role as a member of a collaborative team in identifying patterns of strengths and challenges in communication in children with autism and in providing social, behavioral, and communication supports. It presents two case studies of boys (ages 10-12) with autism. (Contains references.)…

Intentional communicative acts were assessed in 13 children (ages 2-8) with Cornelia-de-Lange syndrome with a severe mental disability and compared to children with Down and 5p syndromes. The mean number of intentional communicative acts was significantly lower. Analysis of play behaviors revealed the differences were specific for the…

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…

To demonstrate the school psychologist's role in effecting appropriate interventions for children with communication disorders, a 5-year individualized education program for 1 boy (followed from age 27 months to 6 years) with a severe communication disorder is described. The collaborative nature of the consultative parent/educational staff…

The role of the school psychologist in assessing communication skills of students with severe disabilities is explored, and the psychologist's role as educational team leader in interventions is discussed. A contextual assessment procedure is recommended for its practical value to direct service providers. (SLD)

Describes a form of adaptive communication, referred to as single switch technology, as a method for assessing and developing mathematics skills of speech and motor disabled students. Provides a BASIC program to illustrate a basic single switch mathematics program. (MDH)

A 6-year-old child's oral and spelled utterances were compared over a 3-month period as he was trained to use facilitated communication (FC). The child's language with FC was significantly better than his oral language. Evidence that he was authoring his own messages included his eventual ability to type messages without physical support.…

Personal observations and reflections recount the first year of experience of a team of two doctoral students specializing in speech-language pathology and early childhood special education. The students were selected to supervise master-level students in training. Aspects of interdisciplinary collaboration, stages of team development, and…

This introduction to the special issue summarizes issues raised in the nine subsequent contributed papers, which discuss research findings on communication and language development in persons with mental retardation or developmental disabilities. The paper stresses the direct relevance of the research for prevention, assessment, intervention, and…

Ethnographic assessment is recommended in the language evaluation of Asian-Pacific American students. Procedures are outlined for collecting data representative of the student's repertoire; for determining how cultural, linguistic, and experiential factors affect student behavior; and for taking the perspective of the student as well as that of…

This article presents an intervention framework in which speech-language pathologists and behavioral psychologists view the challenging behaviors of individuals with traumatic brain injury from a communication perspective and address these problems in a way that is positive, integrated, functional, collaborative, and environmental. (Author/JDD)

Addresses three relationships between research and practice in speech-language pathology: (1) shared-interest communication; (2) research-driven communication; and (3) practice-driven communication. Recommendations for developing effective communication are offered. (Author/DB)

Presents a culturally sensitive four-part augmentative and alternative communication assessment protocol. The protocol is inclusive, emphasizing the need to address cultural features directly, and it includes a self-assessment for all practitioners before they engage in the delivery of services to children from different cultural backgrounds.…