This article proposes a systems approach for dealing with change in the delivery of speech-language pathology services, particularly as it relates to implementing service delivery with speech-language pathology assistants. Sequential steps in a systematic framework for promoting inclusion of assistants in service delivery are described. (Contains…

Presents the symptoms of selective mutism and historical background for treatment. It provides a case study which illustrates successful multidisciplinary treatment outcomes for a child who was selectively mute. Issues relevant to speech-language pathologists working with elementary school children are discussed and treatment guidelines provided.…

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 article provides a rationale for incorporating early literacy screening into speech language services for young children with communication impairments. Recommendations concern identifying which children and what areas of literacy should be targeted for screening. Guidelines for interpreting findings and for using screening to guide early…

This case study describes Rosemary Crossley's facilitated communication method, which enables certain autistic people to communicate via an electronic device. Controversies surrounding the method and challenges to assumptions about autism are explored. (SK)

Three youths with speech and language disorders completed an interview-training strategy emphasizing self-monitoring procedures. The results indicated that the training procedures were effective in increasing the use of positive comments, questions, and self-disclosures both in mock interviews and actual interview situations. (Author/JDD)

Described is a two-pronged approach to assessment of cognitive-communicative functions in head injury, incorporating elements of both restorative and compensatory models. The approach combines: (1) use of standardized cognitive measures, and (2) observational protocols for systematic evaluation of functioning on integrated, multicomponent tasks…

The case study of a six-year-old nonspeaking girl with severe cerebral palsy demonstrated the effectiveness of intervention with augmentative and alternative communication methods. Both picture symbol communication and functional speech emerged and the child, initially believed to be mentally retarded, was determined to be of normal intelligence.…

This study compared the conversational repair strategies employed by eight language-impaired children, aged 7-11, and their linguistically normal age- and language-matched peers. All of the subjects appeared to recognize the obligatory nature of the neutral clarification requests employed, though performance differences were noted relating to…

Informal criterion-referenced techniques can be used to assess the writing skills of students with disabilities. Teachers can analyze student writing samples with regard to fluency, sentence types, vocabulary, structure, and ideation. A form is presented for collecting and analyzing data from writing samples, and use of the form is illustrated.…

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 article summarizes findings of studies on speech-language pathologists with varying levels of clinical experience, presents a working model of clinical expertise, offers comments concerning the development and maintenance of clinical expertise, and identifies some problems with research in this area. An appendix lists knowledge, skills,…

This article presents a case study of a child with Hunter's syndrome, a genetic disorder often resulting in a degeneration of speech and language functioning and hearing loss. The study demonstrates the typical delay in diagnosis and shows how a team approach can maintain such a child in a regular public school setting. (Author/DB)

This study investigated two pragmatic profiles (the Pragmatic Profile and the Profile of Communicative Appropriateness) used to assess the language of two aphasic patients. The study examined interscorer reliability, scoring sensitivity, and diagnostic accuracy. Findings indicate that training in scoring these profiles must be uniform, and greater…

This study, involving 40 preschool children with normal cognitive abilities, determined the effects of initial teaching of semantic elements on compound Blissymbol acquisition, retention, and generalization in a story-telling context. Results indicated that the initial teaching of elements did not contribute to compound acquisition and retention…