Increasing numbers of young children with disabilities are receiving services in inclusive settings such as Head Start. It is important to note that positive outcomes for young children with disabilities are due in large part to practitioners' understanding and implementation of both recommended practices in both early care and education and early…

With the implementation of the inclusion concept in public school classes, the ability of the general physical educator to effectively teach all of his or her students has been tested. This is particularly true with some students who have a receptive language disability (e.g., deaf, traumatic brain injury), an expressive language disability (e.g.,…

A small pilot study was conducted to explore the self-concept of young people with a learning disability from a Jewish community in an inner city area. Four young people participated in the project. All attended a college dedicated to the further education of people with special needs from the Jewish community. Semi-structured interviews were…

This study asked whether nine adolescent and adult facilitated communication users with autism could, in a facilitator-blind condition, respond accurately to stimuli presented on a computer screen, thus demonstrating that they are the sole authors of their communication. A time and task sampling method was used, in which various communication…

A four-year federally funded project created this resource guide and interactive multimedia computer software program that are designed to increase knowledge and skills about assistive technology for people with disabilities. Project ASTECH targets special educators, related service personnel, and others who need to learn about assistive…

This report is intended to provide ideas to assist professionals and students in the exploration of tangible symbols for intervention purposes in working with visually capable individuals with disabilities. The first section provides an overview of tangible symbols and discusses the differences between tangible symbols and tangible objects, when…

The subject of the attached case study is Sara, a 17-year-old high school honors student who communicates using a DynaVox 3100, which she accesses via single-switch visual scanning. A team of education and engineering specialists at DynaVox Systems LLC collaborated with Sara to identify and maximize her use of device features and accessories that…

PEPNet's "Perspectives" is the collaborative newsletter of the four PEPNet regional centers. This newsletter combines each centers individual strengths into a single resource that can be used on a national level. The articles in this issue are: (1) PEPNet Director's Corner: Postsecondary Education Consortium (Marcia Kolvitz); (2) PEPNet…

This report discusses the outcomes of a project that examined the acquisition and use of voice output communication aids in naturally occurring routines by four young children (ages 3-5) with autism. The effects of naturalistic teaching and the use of voice output communication aids (VOCAs) on communicative behaviors of the participants as well as…

This longitudinal case study examined the communication and literacy learning progress of an 11-year-old boy with severe speech and physical impairments related to cerebral palsy. Integrated use of voice-output augmentative communication technology led to improved communication skills as well as increased demonstrations of literacy capability…

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…

A study was conducted of nine male and three female adolescents with autism to find the collateral behavioral and social interaction effects of using facilitated communication. The facilitated communication intervention appeared to have no influence on the subjects' behavior and social interactions. (CR)

Discusses issues related to providing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems to young African American children with disabilities and their families. Issues related to the family include stress on the family, communication partners, cultural mistrust, communication needs and values, and language patterns and communication style.…

This paper summarizes selected findings on approaches to increasing the rate of communicatively appropriate responses in augmentative and alternative communication. Six approaches--efficient keyboard layouts, reduced keys keyboards, Minspeak with Words Strategy, enlarged keys keyboards, abbreviation expansion, and lexical prediction--are reviewed…

This study tested the validity of facilitated communication with 2 students (ages 10 and 12) with autism, using a picture identification task, video task, and object identification. Subjects were able to report information unknown to the facilitator in one out of four controlled sessions. Strong evidence for direct cuing between subject and…