Gloria Soto

Collaborative teaming to support students with augmentative and alternative communication needs in general education classrooms

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the use of a team collaboration process to increase the academic achievement and social participation of three students with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) needs who were members of general education classrooms. Three educational teams, comprised of the general education teacher, inclusion support teacher, instructional assistant, speech-language pathologist, and one of the students parents, developed and collaboratively implemented Unified Plans of Support for the students that consisted of academic adaptations and communication and social supports. The effectiveness of the support plans was evaluated through behavioral observations and team interviews. Evaluation outcomes suggest that consistent implementation of the plans of support by team members was associated with improvements in academic skills, social interactions with peers, engagement in classroom activities, and use by the students of a variety of AAC devices. Implications of the collaborative teaming process in supporting students with AAC needs in general education classrooms are discussed.

Grammatical issues in graphic symbol communication

In this article, issues and concepts related to the study of production, comprehension, and acquisition of syntax and morphology by children who need augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems are reviewed. The use of graphic symbols when vocal speech is severely limited presents significant challenges to the typical process of language acquisition. A conceptual and theoretical context is presented, and concerns that seem unique to AAC are explored. Productive lines of research are proposed to address language acquisition issues and to improve AAC system designs and intervention programs for language development in children who require AAC.

Collaborative Teaming to Support Preschoolers With Severe Disabilities Who Are Placed in General Education Early Childhood Programs.

Researchers in 2 studies investigated the effectiveness of a general education/special education collaborative teaming process in increasing the engagement, development, and learning of preschoolers with severe disabilities who were placed in general education early childhood programs that operated under a team-teaching model. The process included monthly team meetings to develop educational and social supports for targeted preschoolers, which were then collaboratively implemented by the educational team members. Study 1 focused on 3 teams composed of early childhood and special education teachers, instructional assistants, speech—language therapists, and parents who supported a child with significant disabilities attending one of the 3 participating preschools. Study 2 extended the collaborative teaming model to include all preschoolers with disabilities attending one of the preschool programs from the first study who required intensive levels of support (4 children). The effectiveness of the collaborative development and implementation of support plans—and the extent to which the collaborative teaming process was judged to be natural to the existing classroom culture and useful in producing positive child outcomes—was evaluated in both studies.

Perceptions of AAC: An Ethnographic Investigation of Mexican-American Families

Ethnographic methodologies were used to describe and interpret the experiences of four Mexican-American families of individuals with complex communication needs regarding the impact of using AAC devices. Findings suggest that the AAC devices were not perceived by family members to be useful for interactions with their children. Additionally, family members perceived that the fluency and complexity of the conversations with their children were not improved with the use of an AAC device because of language barriers and cultural preferences for speed and intimacy. All of the participating families valued and strongly supported the use of the device for educational purposes and in educational environments.

Conversation Patterns of Three Adults Using Aided Speech: Variations across Partners

This exploratory study describes the conversation patterns of three aided speakers and their communication partners and focuses on the question of whether patterns vary across different types of partners. The aided speakers were videotaped engaging in unstructured conversation with both a natural speaker and another aided speaker. Comparisons of conversation patterns were made across the two types of conversation dyads. The study explores several questions relating to conversational control, including (a) who introduces topics of conversation, (b) whether partners are equally likely to make conversational contributions, (c) whether summoning power is distributed equally, and (d) what proportion of the interactions are devoted to conversation repair, as opposed to topic development and other conversation maintenance functions. The findings suggest that patterns varied markedly across the two types of conversation dyads and that conversations between the aided speakers were noticeably more symmetric and less likely to require repair. Implications are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.

Self-Efficacy Beliefs and the Education of Students with Severe Disabilities

The purpose of this article is to examine the contributions made by the teacher efficacy literature to the study of teaching students with severe disabilities. The description and measurement of the self-efficacy construct are first explained, followed by a brief overview of problems in self-efficacy research. Findings on the relationship between perceived self-efficacy of teachers and variables including perceptions of student abilities, classroom practices, adoption of innovations, and collaboration with others are then summarized. Implications of this literature for practice, staff development, and personnel training programs are then discussed. Finally, strategies to guide future research are offered.

Shared storybook reading with a student who uses alternative and augmentative communication: A description of scaffolding practices

This study reports descriptive findings regarding the scaffolding strategies used by an experienced practitioner during a shared book reading session with a student who uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Specific scaffolding strategies are described and, in addition, the level of semantic complexity targeted by the practitioner during the session was examined. The majority of scaffolding strategies targeted higher levels of semantic complexity such as metalanguage, inference and interpretation. Results of this work may contribute to the design of storybook reading as a context for narrative language intervention for children who use AAC.

Exploring the elements of narrative that emerge in the interactions between an 8-year-old child who uses an AAC device and her teacher

Narrative abilities have been identified as a link to successful school achievement and, in particular, to the acquisition of literacy. Children who use AAC may be at risk of impaired narrative facility due to the differences in their language learning experiences, limitation of their AAC systems, and limitations from constrained access to physical and social environments. In this study, the elements of narrative that emerged in the interactions between an 8-year-old child who used an AAC device and her teacher are described. This assessment was achieved through use of the Narrative Assessment Profile (Bliss, McCabe, & Miranda, ) in the context of five tasks designed to elicit a spectrum of narrative features. Results indicate that the interactions between the child and her teacher made it difficult to assess whether or not the child had control of certain features of narrative. From a purely structural analysis, most narrative discourse dimensions appeared to be severely compromised and therefore in need of immediate intervention. Discussion includes aspects of narrative intervention and suggested topics for further research.

Considerations for the Provision of Services to Bilingual Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Abstract Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) service providers are increasingly serving a significant number of clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In this paper, we discuss general considerations and future research needs relevant to the use of AAC strategies and techniques with bilingual children, specifically, issues related to the scaffolding of communication and language development in more than one language, and the selection and customization of AAC systems for bilingual children. We do so by first reviewing key research on bilingualism with children with communication disabilities and its implications for research and practice in the AAC field. We propose the use of a sociocultural approach to AAC service delivery and argue for the support of both languages needed by the child to fully participate in his or her communicative environments. Implications of the sociocultural perspective and future research needs are also presented.

Co-Construction as a Facilitative Factor in Supporting the Personal Narratives of Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Adult co-construction with children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) has been found to facilitate child communicative competence in general, but few studies have examined adult co-construction during the telling of personal narratives. This study explored the use of adult co-constructive strategies during personal storytelling with a child who used AAC. Case study discourse analysis methodology was utilized to analyze the types of co-construction strategies employed and the effectiveness of these co-construction strategies during an intervention session with a speech-language pathologist and a child who used AAC. The study concluded that use of child-centered co-construction strategies, including elicitation, question asking, prompts, positive praise, repetitions, and modeling of vocabulary and grammar, might be a facilitative factor in supporting the personal narratives of children who use AAC. Clinical implications for using child-centered co-construction during dyadic exchanges with children who use AAC are discussed.