The purpose of this article is to describe procedures for a team approach to implementing a tangible symbol communication system (TSCS) to support communication skill development of young children with multiple/severe disabilities (MSD). The authors suggest that implementation of a TSCS is a process that includes (a) assessment of child…

This brief, co-produced by the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) and Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems (ATLAS), provides important information about the differences between students with significant cognitive disabilities who have cortical visual impairment (CVI) and those who have other types of visual impairment (VI).…

This brief, co-produced by the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) and Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems (ATLAS), provides important information about students with dual sensory loss who also have significant cognitive disabilities, as well as recommendations for identification and implications for instruction. The…

Young children with multiple disabilities have unique needs and challenges. Many of these young children struggle to communicate their wants and needs, to freely move their body to access and engage their world, and to learn abstract concepts and ideas. Professionals and families working together must identify the individual supports each child…

Adolescents with multiple or severe disabilities often lack access to opportunities available to their typically developing peers, whose in-school friendships are often reinforced through other out-of-school, and sometimes interschool, activities. Limitations to these opportunities can be a result of attending a separate school designed to provide…

An orientation to autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), also known as autism, is provided, and the specific syndrome of autism and deafness is addressed. The two conditions have in common a major problem: communication. Case histories are provided, the development of treatment for autism is discussed, and the separate disorders that make up ASD are…

The Paget-Gorman Sign System, a signed English approach shown to be effective with deaf or hard of hearing children, has been helpful in developing phrase structure in hearing impaired mentally retarded students. (CL)

The paper reports on a case study of the language environments of two severely involved, non-oral cerebral palsied preschoolers. Observation of interactions, comprehension development, acquisition of productive signals and of use of supplementary communicative devices revealed deviances in language directed to severely multiply physically…

The author describes the value to visually impaired and multiply handicapped students of a good typewriting curriculum. She discusses hand and finger exercises and notes benefits to students from focusing on the hands as well as on the rudiments and total communicative value of typing. (CL)

The paper examines the use of concrete symbol systems to make the transition from presymbolic to formal symbolic communication for deaf blind students. Comments focus on expressive use of concrete symbols and address two issues requiring further research: (1) the critical features of referent objects, concrete symbols, and concrete symbol arrays…

The collection of papers by Swedish special educators, addresses approaches to helping mentally retarded and multiply handicapped people communicate. The papers are written by psychologists, educators, speech therapists, music instructors, and researchers and focus on the following topics: the context of communication (Mats Granlund), early…

Describes multiple techniques for facilitating development of initial communication repertoires for individuals with multiple disabilities, and integrates these techniques with strategies for increasing the alert, responsive behavior state through the Tri-Focus Framework, which emphasizes understanding the learner, broadening the communication…

A blind multiply handicapped preschooler was taught to respond appropriately to two adjacency pair types ("where question-answer" and "comment-acknowledgement"). The two alternative language acquisition strategies available to blind children were encouraged: echolalia to maintain communicative interactions and manual searching…

The application of microtechnology in a school for multiply handicapped children is explained to include a language arts program stressing sentence formation and letter matching, production of artificial speech, and communication aids for physically impaired children. Adaptations for severe physical involvement and for visual impairments are…

The paper reviews the nonverbal behaviors of students with severe/multiple handicaps and demonstrates parallels between their communication development and that of normally developing children. Discussed are the roles of the adult and child in the communicative exchange and examples of communicative behavior typically seen in children with…