Communication Disorders Quarterly

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.

The purpose of this research was to replicate and extend some of the findings of Hart and Risley using automatic speech processing instead of human transcription of language samples. The long-term goal of this work is to make the current approach to speech processing possible by researchers and clinicians working on a daily basis with families and young children. Twelve hour-long, digital audio recordings were obtained repeatedly in the homes of middle to upper SES families for a sample of typically developing infants and toddlers (N = 30). These recordings were processed automatically using a measurement framework based on the work of Hart and Risley. Like Hart and Risley, the current findings indicated vast differences in individual children’s home language environments (i.e., adult word count), children’s vocalizations, and conversational turns. Automated processing compared favorably to the original Hart and Risley estimates that were based on transcription. Adding to Hart and Risley’s findings were new descriptions of patterns of daily talk and relationships to widely used outcome measures, among others. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This study of 40 4-year-olds investigated whether tests of phonological sensitivity, print awareness, or word awareness accounted for a significant amount of variability in preschool children’s invented spellings. Subtest results from the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening—PreKindergarten and two measures of individual word awareness were correlated with single word spelling. Results indicated that word awareness accounted for the greatest amount of variance. Print awareness also contributed to a significant amount of variance; however, phonological sensitivity did not. The majority of the children wrote at least one correct single letter or one phonemically similar letter, performing at the literate or prephonetic level. Although continued research is needed, attention to word awareness in emergent writing and spelling is important for sufficient understanding of preschool children’s literacy development.

The acquisition of social skills is critical in the successful academic inclusion and competitive employment of individuals with disabilities. Parent involvement in identification of social skills targets for intervention is a valuable first step in the intervention process. A total of 21 parents completed the Pragmatics Profile from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals for their teen and young adult children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Because several parents rated more than one item as not appropriate, total scores could be computed for only 10 participants; however, descriptive analysis of results from the Rituals and Conversational Skills section was conducted for all participants. Of the 22 items from that section, 17 were rated as sometimes or never (i.e., requiring intervention) by the majority of parents, suggesting that many teens and young adults using AAC have pragmatic skills in need of intervention.

Currently, there are few published treatment studies to address prosody in clinical populations. Developing treatment protocols is challenging due to the considerable degree of heterogeneity across individuals with prosodic disturbances and the multiple aspects of prosody, voice, speech, and language that can be affected. The purpose of this article is to describe the clinical management of prosody and outcomes in an adolescent who exhibits atypical prosody, residual segmental speech errors, morphosyntactic errors, and social communicative difficulties. An explicit approach using meta-awareness and discrimination strategies was used. Positive outcomes in some targeted behaviors were noted, whereas other behaviors did not change. Outcomes are discussed relative to the treatment approach.

This tutorial is designed to provide academic communication sciences and disorders (CSD) programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with a comprehensive instructional model on evidence-based practice (EBP). The model was designed to help students view EBP as an ongoing process needed in all clinical decision making. The three facets of EBP (research, client/contextual factors, and clinical expertise) are addressed through explicit teaching practices and assignments in didactic coursework and considered in parallel with a concurrent clinical practicum. At the graduate level, the reciprocal nature between theory, research, and practice is emphasized using components such as structured EBP protocols in coursework and clinic, application of clinical case studies that emphasize EBP procedures, and the integration of authentic research assignments. Examples are provided, and ways in which academic faculty and clinical educators can actively engage in creating a shared language and culture at all levels in a CSD program are presented.