Specific program suggestions are provided to enable the speech-language pathologist to utilize the mealtime setting to integrate both vocal and nonvocal communicative objectives. The roots of interaction and communication which underly both vocal and nonvocal systems are described. (Author)

The study found that five multiply handicapped two-year-olds engaged in a greater frequency of communicative behaviors, a higher number of limb movements, and a higher developmental level of communicative behaviors when the interaction was child-initiated compared to when it was adult-initiated. (Author/JDD)

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…

The paper addresses the assessment of sensorimotor and communication skills in profoundly/multiply handicapped children. The problems inherent in assessing this population are described, including lack of validity of developmental norms established on children with intact sensory systems. Factors affecting sensory organization are reviewed,…

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 training manual was developed as a result of a summer training institute held in 1986 for teachers of low-incidence populations (those made up of students with severe and multiply handicapping conditions). The institute aimed to provide teachers with the latest information and technology to assess and develop early communication skills, and…

Visual accents can create unique communication graphics to increase attending behavior necessary for learning symbol/referent relationships by students with severe vision loss. Accenting procedures use size, color, contrast, shape, and graphic pattern to enhance the probability that the learner will self-initiate attending to the visual symbol.…

The staff of an apartment-based residential support program was taught to use behavior interruption strategies to elicit requesting functions from two women with deaf-blindness and developmental disabilities. Results found the strategies to be both quickly assimilated by the staff and effective in increasing request rates from the subjects.…

The guide is intended to help teachers of severely and multiply handicapped elementary students develop curriculum and describes techniques for the systematic consideration of needs in the areas of communication, mobility, and object manipulation. An initial section focuses on assessment strategies, including the use of teacher made skill…

In order to facilitate simultaneous use of verbal and gestural communication, a five-year-old Down's syndrome child was taught with the Promoting Aphasics' Communicative Effectivenes (PACE) technique. PACE provided a structured format to stimulate natural face to face conversation while providing for the use of multimodality communication. (SEW)

Practical and concise, this introductory guide is filled with real-world tips and strategies for anyone working to improve the communication of children with moderate, severe, and multiple disabilities. Emphasizing the link between behavior and communication, three respected researchers transform up-to-date research and proven best practices into…

The article describes methods used to bring a seven-year-old boy with severe auditory and visual impairments and no communication skills to a level of oral communication within one year. The manual, graphic, and oral-aural strategies used are described. (Author/DB)

Contained in this teaching guide are two units that offer teaching strategies and activities for use with severely and multiply mentally impaired elementary aged students. The with severely and multiply mentally impaired elementary aged students. The guide is intended to provide structured experiences to foster the use of augmentative and…

Intended for use by New York City special education teachers with little or no experience serving students with dual sensory impairments as well as cognitive disabilities, the manual identifies teaching strategies that are easy to implement yet based on direct experience and the current research. Chapter titles and sample topics include the…

One hundred interactions involving 4,231 communicative acts between classroom personnel and multiply disabled students were videotaped. The resulting data were coded and analyzed, and showed that: (1) conventional communicative forms (e.g., speech, manual signs, conventional nonverbal expressions) were selected to convey information to students…