Phil Parette

A History of Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Individuals with Severe and Profound Disabilities

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a prominent component in the development of support services for individuals with disabilities, especially those with severe disabilities. In this article we provide an overview of the historical development of AAC services, tracing their evolution over the past half-century through four specific themes: social change and legislation, assessment, intervention, and family and cultural issues.

Family-centered Decision Making in Assistive Technology

Throughout the country, school teams increasingly are adopting culturally sensitive family-centered practices in planning for assistive technology (AT) for children with disabilities. Over the past two decades evolving research has revealed the importance of considering family and cultural issues when planning AT interventions for children with disabilities and their families. This paper presents an overview of selected family and cultural issues, and suggests ongoing questions. The potential for interactive multimedia in helping teams and families make AT decisions is reviewed. The paper concludes with a description of a newly available interactive CD-ROM designed to provide to both families and professionals basic information on augmentative and alternative communication decision-making, including an overview of relevant family and cultural issues.

Millennial Students with Mild Disabilities and Emerging Assistive Technology Trends

While the culture of typical Millennial students, those born after 1978–82, is increasingly recognized as being different from previous generations, particularly with regard to how technology is perceived and used, relatively little is known regarding whether these same characteristics are exhibited by students with mild disabilities. This article explores three cultural dimensions of technology-use patterns by Millennial students having particular relevance to students with mild disabilities: (a) comfort with technology, (b) connectivity to the world, and (c) technology as a tool for learning. An argument is presented that current education professionals who must now consider assistive technology (AT) for these students, know little about their preferences for, choices among, and usage of common non-school technologies that may have substantive implications for AT service delivery.

Creating a Technology Toolkit for Students with Mental Retardation: A Systematic Approach

Assistive technology consideration and implementation is often limited by the technology experience and knowledge of the education professionals involved in the process. The creation of a toolkit containing highly useful technologies may assist education professionals in this process. This article discusses a systematic method for creating a technology toolkit for use with students having mental retardation. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Multimedia Effectiveness in an AAC Preservice Setting

This study investigated the effectiveness of the CD, Families, Culture and AAC, as a culturally sensitive teaching tool for students enrolled in a speech-language pathology AAC course. Students enrolled in the course were divided into three learning format groups that (a) viewed the CD and engaged in learning challenges independently, (b) viewed the CD in class, and (c) had lecture only. Students took objective pre-post tests and also answered essay questions over the material after it was presented. Results indicated that the independent group made significantly smaller gains in pretest-posttest scores related to cultural content than did either the in-class viewing or the lecture group. No significant differences were found by learning group to answers to essay questions. Results are discussed and suggestions are given for appropriate classroom use of the CD.