Reading skills are critically important for a child’s development and continued growth in school. The home and school literacy experiences of children who have developmental disabilities have been found to be qualitatively different from the experiences of their same age peers without disabilities. In addition to access to instruction, a number of intrinsic factors including cognitive ability, receptive language and expressive speech skills have been suggested as factors that may place children with developmental disabilities at a greater risk for limited development of reading skills. Currently, little is understood about how children who have developmental disabilities and may have limitations in productive speech learn to read. This study identifies key intrinsic and extrinsic factors that are related to the development of phonological awareness in 42 children between 4 years and 5 years 9 months of age with developmental disabilities and a range of speech abilities. Aims of this project were to 1- systematically assess children’s intrinsic factors of speech ability, receptive and expressive language and vocabulary, cognitive skills and phonological awareness to determine key intrinsic factors related to phonological awareness and 2- describe the extrinsic factors of home literacy experience and preschool literacy instruction provided to children. Children were found to have frequent and positive home literacy experiences. No significant correlations between speech ability and frequency of shared reading experiences were found. Parents reported low levels of preschool literacy instruction. Significant correlations were found between instruction in decoding and word recognition and children’s sound-symbol awareness. Correlations were found between the use of technology and media and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and children’s speech ability. Positive, significant relationships were found between phonological awareness and all direct assessment measures of developmental skill, speech ability and early reading skills but were not found between phonological awareness and home or school literacy experiences. Speech ability did not predict a significant amount of variance in phonological awareness skill beyond what would be expected by cognitive development, receptive language and orthographic knowledge. This study provides important implications for practitioners and researchers alike concerning the factors related to early reading development in children with limited speech ability.

The purpose of this work is to show howcome ACC (Augmentative and alternative communication) would be used in preschool with all the children and not just with the children who are in need of it. This study therefore has the task of comparing two different preschools, one municipal and one private, to get knowledge of educators perceptions and expectations of its work with ACC in verbal communication with the children. To conduct the survey, questionnaires were sent to the respondents. One group of informants was working at a municipal preschool, the other group is working at a Swedish church's preschool. The questionnaires were compiled to show any similarities or differences among the preschools and what these may be depended on. The results show that educators in the municipal preschool are familiar with the work of ACC and welcomes the method. The replies from the respondents in the Swedish church's preschool are however show a certain resignation because respondents say they want to use ACC but they don’t really manage to create time and opportunities. The study also shows that the work of ACC in preschool represents a solid support to all children's language development and vocabulary building, regardless of difficulties. Thus it can be concluded that ACC contributes to children are treated in an equal way in linguistic communication with adults.

Children who have complex communication needs often use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices and strategies to address their communication requirements. If they have concurrent physical impairments, they may have difficulty accessing educational materials, especially when manipulation of items is used to enhance learning. This study consisted of three case studies with children who used their own speech generating device (SGD) to control a Lego robot to do math measurement lessons. System use was examined by measuring participant performance in math measurement lessons, describing the process of using the system, and contrasting system use with other methods of accomplishing math measurement activities. The study informed the underlying theories driving the study: that being able to do hands-on activities in learning is beneficial, that integration of AAC and manipulation in educational activities is important, and that assistive robots can bridge the functional gap between participant abilities and activity requirements. The teacher measured participants’ procedural knowledge based on how they manipulated items using the robot. She measured participants’ conceptual understanding, use of appropriate language, and explanation of reasoning based on their communication. The participants used SGD output, non-verbal communication and the robot to communicate. The study showed that manipulation and communication can be interrelated and that having access to both enhanced the participants’ message. Using the robot as a tool in these math lessons had some limitations, but they were easily compensated for by the teacher. The efficiency of using the robot to accomplish tasks was lower than observing the teacher, but there were benefits in terms of effectiveness and participant satisfaction. Stakeholders felt that using the robot was a more effective way for participants to "show what they know" than observing the teacher and guiding her based on her questions. Using the robot also had some perceived benefits in terms of effectiveness as a learning tool with regards to motivation, engagement, and hands-on experience. In general, participants were more satisfied using the robot than watching the teacher do the math activities. However, improving robot task efficiency would further improve user satisfaction and this challenge will be addressed in future studies. / Rehabilitation Science

Severe motor impairments can severely restrict interaction with one's surroundings. Brain computer interfaces combined with text-based communication systems, such as the P300 Speller, have allowed individuals with motor disabilities to spell messages with their EEG signals. Although providing full composition flexibility, they enable communication rates of only a few characters per minute. Utterance-based communication systems have been developed for individuals with disability and have greatly increased communication speeds, but have yet to be applied to BCIs. This paper proposes an utterance-based communication system using the P300-BCI in which words are organized in a network structure that facilitates rapid retrieval. In trials with able-bodied participants, the proposed system achieved greater message speeds, but rated lower in effectiveness than the P300 Speller. Nonetheless, subject preferences and reports of self-perceived effectiveness suggested an inclination towards the proposed word system and thus further investigation of word-based networks is warranted in brain-controlled AAC systems.

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Minimal research exists regarding the effectiveness of pause time as an independent strategy for communication partners to support the communication of young people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). To date, pause time has been investigated as component of a group of interaction strategies only; therefore its validity as an interaction strategy for communication partners is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of variation in pause time as an interaction strategy when communicating with young people who use AAC. Eight participants aged 8:11 to 20:08 years (mean 16.02 years), who used a variety of AAC systems, participated in the study. Three pause time conditions were trialed during a scripted shared storybook reading task: two, 10 and 45 seconds in which to initiate a response. A total of 27 conversational turn opportunities were provided to participants over the course of the task. If no response was initiated within the pause time, the examiner moved on to the next turn opportunity. If a response was initiated, the participant was provided time to finish their turn. Turns were analyzed for percentage of responses made to a turn opportunity, mean length of utterance in words (MLU), percentage of assertive conversational acts made and the modes of communication used. Findings of the study indicated that participants were more likely to respond to a turn opportunity when their communication partner allowed a longer pause time. Additionally, a longer pause time resulted in a higher MLU. Participants did not use a greater number of assertive conversational acts or use their AAC system over other modes of communication when provided a longer pause time. Results are discussed in relation to the current AAC literature and implications of the findings for clinicians and communication partners of young people who use AAC.

Severe motor impairments can severely restrict interaction with one's surroundings. Brain computer interfaces combined with text-based communication systems, such as the P300 Speller, have allowed individuals with motor disabilities to spell messages with their EEG signals. Although providing full composition flexibility, they enable communication rates of only a few characters per minute. Utterance-based communication systems have been developed for individuals with disability and have greatly increased communication speeds, but have yet to be applied to BCIs. This paper proposes an utterance-based communication system using the P300-BCI in which words are organized in a network structure that facilitates rapid retrieval. In trials with able-bodied participants, the proposed system achieved greater message speeds, but rated lower in effectiveness than the P300 Speller. Nonetheless, subject preferences and reports of self-perceived effectiveness suggested an inclination towards the proposed word system and thus further investigation of word-based networks is warranted in brain-controlled AAC systems.

Children with developmental disabilities often have complex communication needs that require professional intervention. For children with limited or no functional speech, the first step in treatment programming is choosing an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) modality that best represents the needs of the child. The availability and diversity of AAC systems are only increasing (Loncke, 2014). Parents and practitioners are faced with a difficult decision and existing literature has yet to come to a consensus on the potential benefits or disadvantages of incorporating specific AAC strategies. The field of applied behavior analysis has empirically demonstrated the utility of AAC modalities as viable manding topographies to reduce problem behavior (Harding et al., 2009; Ringdahl et al., 2009). Despite reliable reductions in problem behavior, there is paucity in research directly comparing mand modalities and the subsequent effects on communication repertoires. Existing studies contain methodological features that make it difficult to draw firm conclusions (Chambers & Rehfeldt, 2003; Gregory, DeLeon, & Richman, 2009; Tincani, 2004). Therefore, the purpose of the current investigation is to expand on existing literature evaluating aided and unaided AAC modalities and contribute to literature on mand training as it relates to topography-based versus selection-based system outcomes. This study compares three popular mand modalities frequently utilized in interventions implemented by speech-language pathologists and behavior analysts: (1) speech only (2) picture card + speech (3) sign + speech. Conditions were compared in an alternating treatments design for two participants to determine differential modality acquisition, problem behavior reduction, communicative gesturing, and speech emergence. Methodological considerations were given to control for the influence of transfer of stimulus control procedures by adopting a graduated time delay prompt fading procedure and, to the greatest degree possible, minimize the influence of response effort variability by employing the lowest response effort possible across all conditions. Results support the “multimodal” conceptual framework and the practice of “total communication” and provide evidence against the opposing “incompatibility hypothesis.” Keywords: augmentative alternative communication (AAC), mand, verbal behavior, multimodal, total communication, incompatibility hypothesis, aided, unaided, topography-based, selection-based

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