Thesis advisor: Susan M. Bruce / The effects of deafblindness are much greater than simply combining the effects of the individual’s vision loss with the effects of their hearing loss, because these senses strongly support one another (Silberman, Bruce, & Nelson, 2004). Even though most individuals have some residual vision and hearing, deafblindness limits access to the environment, resulting in a distorted perception of the immediate surroundings (van Dijk, Janssen, & Nelson, 2001). The implications greatly limit the individual’s opportunities for incidental learning and significantly impact the individual’s language and communication development (Bruce, 2005; Miles & Riggio, 1999). For children with deafblindness, there is a strong connection between literacy and communication, since engaging in accessible literacy activities can support learning and communication development (Downing, 2005b). When understood as exchanging information with others in a variety of ways based on personal experiences, literacy has inherent communicative and social components (Bruce et al., 2004). This qualitative research study investigated how teachers were implementing read alouds for children with congenital deafblindness, as well as teacher’s understandings regarding the relationship between communication and literacy for individuals with deafblindness. Three case studies were conducted, followed a cross-case analysis to determine prominent themes that emerged from the observation, interview and field note data. Results included the emergence of themes related to teacher beliefs, instructional strategies and the learning environment across cases. The major theme that emerged for teacher beliefs was a shared understanding of the connection between communication and literacy for children with deafblindness, and the minor theme was comprehensive understanding of deafblindness. Major themes that emerged for instructional strategies were the use of total communication with different levels of representation, communication modeling, and positive reinforcement, as well as the minor theme of formative assessment. Finally, for the learning environment, a major theme of adapted materials emerged, as well as a minor theme of technology. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier le développement communicationnel multimodal des jeunes enfants français âgés de 18 mois à 3 ans et demi. Nous nous concentrons donc autant sur l'apparition et le développement des gestes et des combinaisons bimodales alliant un geste et un (ou plusieurs) mot(s) que sur celui de la langue et tâchons d'étudier le rôle du geste dans les étapes précoces de l'acquisition du langage. L'intérêt de cette recherche est qu'elle fait un pont entre (1) les recherches sur la gestualité du jeune enfant durant la période pré-verbale ainsi que sur son entrée dans la période verbale (l'arrivée des énoncés à un mot et deux mots dans ses productions) et (2) les recherches sur l'enfant d'âge scolaire (6 ans et plus) et l'adulte, qui communiquent tous deux en utilisant leur langue maternelle et des gestes co-verbaux. Notre corpus est constitué de 154 vidéos de jeunes enfants en train de jouer avec un ensemble ludique comportant une maison et des personnages en situation de jeu triadique (en présence d'un adulte). Notre premier objectif consistait à vérifier l'hypothèse que la production des gestes communicationnels et l'émergence des combinaisons bimodales annonce l'arrivée des énoncés à deux mots (comme cela a été déjà montré pour les enfants italiens et américains). En fait, il apparaît que ce processus s'étend au-delà des énoncés à deux mots, car ces combinaisons geste+Xmots apparaissent toujours avant les énoncés X+1mot. Il semble donc que le geste joue un rôle dans le développement des verbalisations enfantines avant d'être utilisé comme co-verbal chez l'enfant plus âgé et chez l'adulte. Notre second objectif consistait à observer, qualitativement, l'évolution des conduites communicatives lors de situations de jeux triadique, et plus précisément à voir sur quelles ressources communicationnelles s'appuie l'enfant pour exprimer des suites d'événements (scripts liés à son activité ludique) qui nécessitent non pas une seule, mais deux ou plusieurs prédications. Là encore, il apparaît que les gestes et les combinaisons bimodales sont intégrées aux premières tentatives de verbalisation. Ce travail confirme que le geste joue bien un rôle dans le développement linguistique enfantin. Une meilleure connaissance de ces gestes nous permettra donc une meilleure connaissance du développement de l'enfant et nous aidera à repérer plus efficacement et plus précocement les troubles développementaux de l'enfant. De plus, s'il existe déjà des indices pour mesurer le développement des performances linguistiques, cette recherche soulève la question de la création d'un indice pouvant mesurer les performances communicationnelles multimodales enfantines, c'est-à-dire la création d'un indice prenant en compte l'intégralité des ressources sémiotiques mobilisées par l'enfant et pas seulement la langue. / The aim of this thesis is to study the development of multimodal communication in young French children aged from 18 months to 3 years and a half while acquiring the French language. We will focus on the emergence and development of gestures, gesture-word combinations and language and will try to understand the role of gesture in the early stages of language acquisition. The interest of this research is that it fills the gap between (1) research on the young child first gestures during the pre-verbal period and the period during which he begins to acquire his mother tongue (the appearance of one-word and two-words sets in his productions) AND (2) research about older children (age 6 and older) and adults who both communicate using their mother tongue and co-speech gestures. Our corpus is composed of 154 videos of young children playing with an adult and a house game set (triadic situation). Using these data, we first wanted to test the hypothesis that the production of communicative gestures and the emergence of gesture-word combinations both predict the production of two-words speech in young children (as it has already been shown for Italian and American children). In fact, our results point to a more general developmental scheme with gesture+Xwords combination always preceding the upcoming of X+1words verbal utterances. Gesture use does play a role in the development of language at early stages as well as at later stages, when the child begins to produce long sentences (composed of more than two words) and combines them with co-speech gestures. Our second objective was to observe qualitative changes in the child's communicative behavior in a triadic situation, and more precisely to study the communicative resources the child uses to express sequences of events (scripts related to playful activities) which require not one, but two or more predicates. Again, it appears that gestures and bimodal combinations are integrated within the first attempts to produce verbalizations. This work confirms that gesture use does play a role in language development. A better understanding of these gestures will allow us a better understanding of child development and help us to identify earlier and more effectively developmental disorders in children. In addition, if there already is an index to measure the development of language performance, this research questions the creation of an index that can assess the multimodal communicative performance, that is to say the creation of an index taking into account all the semiotic resources mobilized by the child and not just verbal language.

Stability of diagnosis, symptoms and functioning across the life span is central to understanding any disorder and yet remains a relatively unexplored area in the study of autism (Sigman & McGovern, 2005). This is particularly apparent in the development of communication, including social interaction and language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as there is little research on longitudinal development of children with ASD in general. The outlook on ASD has changed throughout the years, and although the emphasis on speech delay and communication problems have been separated from ASD, it is still one of the most common causes of initial referral in autism diagnoses (Pickles, Risi & Lord, 2004). Understanding the trajectory of communication for a child with ASD is fundamental in providing support and intervention in early years development. As communication is also a primary indicator on later development, it can gage outcomes into adaptive skills, school achievement and adult independence in later adult life. Eleven articles were identified in order to systematically review longitudinal studies based on communication development in ASD, or lack thereof, and why it is important to further carry out research in this area. This review seeks to explore: 1. How the development of different communicative functions in children with ASD is related to change over time. And, 2. What aspects of the child’s proximal processes and/or the child’s characteristics are discussed during measurement periods. Communicative functions were the most common form of communication observed in the studies at assessment periods and as for time points; two assessment periods were most common showing a linear trajectory of progress or decline from time point 1 and 2. All studies discussed aspects of child characteristics, most predominantly being gender and I.Q., however lacked insight into the significance of these and factors of proximal process during measurement periods in the studies reviewed. Ultimately, results display a need for more studies with at least three time points. With two time points only comes a “before” and “after” perspective, whereas, three or more time points enables collection of waves of data, showing key predictors of change in communication in children with a form of ASD.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Bolivia’s coca-growing Yungas region, this thesis is concerned with how, on the most practical level, development projects might hold more relevance to the lives of their target groups than they have hitherto tended to do, as well as how the power imbalances that characterise the relationships between development organisations and local people may be understood and addressed. Beginning with the concept of ‘communicative ecology’ (Tacchi et al 2003) as a framework for exploring the multifariousness of communicative avenues and the interconnectedness of these within a system, I focus my analysis on the ecosystem of coca communications. I argue, however, that the concept of communicative ecology on its own has little meaning without adopting a political economy approach, which incorporates the work of attempting to understand the social and power relations that surround the production, distribution and consumption of resources, both material and cultural. As a way of analysing the strategies and potentials of people within the ecosystem of coca communications, I utilise Bourdieu’s (1990) notions of field, habitus and forms of capital, where the coca field characterises itself by virtue of the fact that all those who are a part of it are linked in some way through the production, exchange and consumption of both the coca leaf, and the values, meanings and discourses that surround it. It is concluded that the ecosystem of coca communications is linked intrinsically to the coca production system, in that individuals and groups have differential access to, inclination to use, and success in influencing the discourse via different communicative media, depending on their situation within the coca field. This refers to land ownership, labour, organisational participation, exchange and consumptive practices, which is translated into a system of capital accumulation and exchange. The thesis argues that development organisations will do well to consider a given locality in these terms in order to facilitate the implementation of ICT projects that are relevant and compatible with local social and communicational systems, and further, that these organisations must reflect upon their own role as ‘introduced organisms’ within local communicative ecologies. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331441 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

South Africa is a developing country and children in South Africa are at a high risk for developing communication disorders with more than 10% of children under three likely to have communication disorders. The ideal is to prevent as many of these communication disorders as possible. This requires the identification of factors within specific communities which may increase the risk for or resilience against developing communication disorders. Providing information on communication development is a form of primary prevention which has proven to be highly successful. There is a continuum of communities in the South African context that range from the developing to the developed and at each level parents have specific requirements regarding the need for information on communication development. Considering the large number of South African infants who are at risk for developing communication disorders and in recognition of the many different communities in the South African context, the need for prevention tools which are developed to meet the needs of specific communities, becomes apparent. This study aimed to develop a tool for parents of a specific South African community, identified as Pretoria East, for the stimulation of communication skills in infants that is valid in terms of content and is judged by parents to be practical and empowering. In order to achieve this aim three phases of research were planned. Phase one aimed to identify the needs of parents and professionals in terms of the informational content and format of a tool for the stimulation of communication in infants. Phase two aimed to develop a tool for the stimulation of communication in infants based on the needs and preferences expressed by parents and professionals, the active involvement of parents from the community in focus group discussions as well as on sound theoretical underpinnings of infant development. Phase three aimed to validate the tool by determining whether the tool fulfilled the needs of parents in terms of informational content and format. The results of this research indicated that a need was identified in parents and professionals alike for a tool for parents on the stimulation of communication skills in infants. A video was indicated as the most popular choice of format. The content of the stimulation tool which was developed in phase two reflected the needs and preferences of the community and included the following topics, namely: discussions and demonstrations on the normal development of communication skills in infants, techniques that would facilitate normal development, risk factors and resilience factors which may influence communication development as well as information on locating a professional. In phase three parents from the community evaluated the video tool as practical and empowering, therefore achieving the main objective of the research. This research highlighted the need within a specific community for information on the facilitation of communication development in young children, implying the need for further research in order to determine the needs of other South African communities. Recommendations were also made regarding the need for speech-language therapists to increase their involvement in prevention initiatives and community work. / Thesis (PhD (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

Infants, toddlers and young children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) often present with multiple risk profiles due to the complex interaction between genotypical, phenotypical and environmental risk factors influencing their communication development at different ages. Current research recommends the need for a comprehensive early communication intervention (ECI) approach to the treatment of young children with CLP. The areas of strength and weakness in communication development and the factors influencing children with CLP at specific age-group intervals are under-emphasized. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the age-specific risk factors and assets which could influence the communication development of young children with CLP visiting a university-based ECI clinic, the Clinic for High-Risk Babies (CHRIB). Furthermore, the developmental areas of strength and weakness in the child with CLP at three specific age-group intervals, ranging from 1 month to 48 months were described. A retrospective, descriptive, between-subject developmental design with a correlation approach was employed. Purposive sampling was implemented as a non-randomized sampling method and 227 participants were included in the study. The data was extracted from the CHRIB database and analyzed by means of basic descriptive and advanced inferential statistical methods. Extensive data processing of all the potential factors that could have an influence on the early communication developmental areas of children with CLP was performed. A final analysis of the most important associations was performed in the SPSS. The findings revealed that expressive and receptive language and listening skills presented as the most vulnerable communication areas across all three age-groups. The cumulative effect of the risk factors was the greatest in the *[12;24) months age-group since this age group presented with the highest frequency of delayed communication development. The majority of participants in all three age-groups presented with areas of strength, which include age-appropriate cognitive skills, pragmatic development, gestural development and gross motor development. Low birth weight presented as a persistent phenotypical risk factor which influenced the development of functions related to language use in the [1;12) and [12;24) months age groups, and gross motor development and receptive language in the *[12;24) months age group. The environtypical factors such as education and occupation of the mother, as well as the type of day care, indicated significant associations with listening skill development in the [1;12) months group and with the development of functions relating to language use in the [12;24) months age group. Parent-child interaction showed recurrent significant associations with receptive and expressive language across the three age groups. The findings indicated that young children with CLP have unique communication profiles at different age intervals and that these age-specific risk factors and assets should be recognized to ensure a comprehensive approach to ECI services to these young children and their families. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

The aim of the thesis is to analyse development trends of marketing, describe their main features and with help of concrete examples show their use. Practical part of the thesis evaluates, with the aid of questionnaire, marketing campaign of the mobile telecommunication company Vodafone that took place three years ago. This campaign arouses a lot of discussion that time and contained elements of this new trends of marketing.

Diploma thesis Media ethics with subtitle The media presentation of selected news across the Czech media consists of two main parts - theoretical and practical. Both of them deal with the issues of media communication, presentation and media ethics. The theoretical part defines the terms and individual relations between them, describes the historical and technological development of the media. It also shows ethical problems of nowadays society. Last but not least, the theoretical part summarizes the methodological approach of the practical part. The aim of the practical part is to analyze the selected report and its presentation in various types of media. The author focuses mainly on media ownership, media type, message processing, etc. The result of the analysis should be a clear outline that would provide the readers of this diploma thesis with all background material to objectively evaluate the presentation of the selected news from the point of view of media ethics.

Expected knowledge contribution Expected knowledge contribution of the study is to visualize educators' perceptions of how they use music as a pedagogical tool and how they describe that it affects students' communication development. The study is also expected to contribute with knowledge about the importance of using music as a multimodal means of communication in special needs primary school Aim and research questions The purpose of this study is to visualize some educators' perceptions of how music as a pedagogical tool is used to contribute to communication development among students in special needs elementary school with a focus on subject area. The aim is also to contribute with knowledge about the importance of using music as a multimodal means of communication in special needs primary school.   When and in what way is music used as a pedagogical tool in teaching? How is music described as a pedagogical tool in relation to pupils' communication development?   Theory The study is based on the sociocultural theory that culminates in the communicative relational perspective (KoRP). KoRP is about the collective and social processes with a focus on the individual and believes that in all human interaction, interaction and communication are central. Method The study has a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews. The empirical data was collected through 8 interviews with educators in 4 different adapted elementary schools that were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The questions were about how these educators view music as a language development tool in special needs elementary school   Result The results show that the teachers in special needs elementary school to some extent use music as a pedagogical tool, preferably in combination with AAC and or  aesthetic expressions. The teachers feel that music is a tool that makes it easier for them to get in touch with the students and creates situations that promote engagement and participation, which in turn affects communication development positively. Special Education Implications There is a great lack of research in Sweden that deals with music as a pedagogical tool to contribute to the development of communication, for children who attend special needs elementary school with a subject area. The hope is that the positive view of music as a tool to support communication development, which can be seen in the results, can inspire some educator to use music more in their teaching.

Coffee is an important commodity being traded daily on major commodity trade exchanges in London and New York. Meanwhile, in emerging markets like Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia, coffee is a major source of revenue, with exports of coffee accounting for, in some cases, over 80% of foreign exchange earnings . As the fourth largest exporter of coffee beans in the world, Indonesia holds a strong opportunity to be a prominent coffee player in the world, not only by exporting raw material to developed countries but also by performing solemn roles in coffee global marketing strategies. Sadly, from preliminary research that I conducted before, I found out that the knowledge level of most Indonesian coffee farmers, particularly in coffee processing techniques, is relatively beyond par. How can Indonesia become a respected global player in coffee industry if the farmers do not simply know how to roast and grind their coffee? Coffee does not only affect world economy. In fact, it touches social cultural aspect in globalization, diffusion of innovations and technology, agricultural sustainability, and human empowerment among coffee farmers. Based on those above notions, I decided to commence on a particular study of a Motramed (Mediated Partnership Model) program, designed and implemented by ICCRI (Indonesian Coffee and Cacao Research Institute), to specialty coffee farmers in Bondowoso, East Java, Indonesia. Over several weeks that I spent in Jember, in ICCRI headquarter, I met directly with ICCRI researchers who are in charge for Motramed development program under Dr. Surip Mawardi’s supervision, respective Motramed farmers in Bondowoso, East Java and Motramed’s social actors. We engaged in an intense dialogue and qualitative interviews regarding Motramed program and its implications towards social, economy, and behavioral change. The study result was tremendously proliferated by myself observation of exploratory study which through that process, I found significant relations between ground theories of development and their field practice.