AAC Strategies for Individuals with Moderate to Severe Disabilities

With more children and young adults with severe disabilities in today's general education classrooms, SLPs and other professionals must be ready to support their students' communication skills with effective AAC. They'll get the proven strategies they need with this intervention guide from top AAC experts, ideal for use as an in-service professional development resource or a highly practical text students will keep and use long after class is over.

Essential for SLPs, OTs, PTs, educators, and other professionals in school settings, this book helps readers establish a beginning functional communicative repertoire for learners with severe disabilities. Professionals will start with an in-depth intervention framework, including a guide to AAC modes and technologies, variables to consider when selecting AAC, and how AAC research can be used to support practice. Then they'll get explicit, evidence-based instructional strategies they'll use to help children and young adults

• initiate, maintain, and terminate an interaction
• repair communication breakdowns
• match graphic symbols to objects and events
• request access to desired objects and activities
• escape and avoid unwanted objects and activities
• use alternative selection methods if they have severe motor impairments
• strengthen language comprehension and adaptive functioning
• enhance intelligibility and comprehensibility
• generalize communication skills across settings

To help guide their interventions, professionals will get a CD-ROM with more than 35 blank forms and sample filled-in forms, plus helpful hints, research highlights, case examples, and chapter objectives. They'll also have a step-by-step primer on monitoring each learner's performance, including an overview of different types of measurement systems and when to use each of them. The go-to guide to the latest evidence-based AAC strategies, this research-to-practice book will help improve communication—and quality of life—for learners with a range of significant disabilities.

With more than 35 forms on CD-

• Checklist to Identify Potential Reinforcers
• Intervention Planning Form
• Performance Monitoring Forms
• Free Access Preference Assessment
• Task Analysis Development and Performance Monitoring Form
• Checklist for Increasing Speed and Accuracy of Selection
• and much more

Susan S. Johnston, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Special Education, University of Utah, 1705 East Campus Center Drive, Room 221, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

Dr. Johnston conducts research, teaches, and provides technical assistance in the areas of augmentative and alternative communication, early language and literacy intervention, and early childhood special education. During her tenure at the University of Utah, Dr. Johnston served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the College of Education and currently serves as Director of International Initiatives for the College of Education. She received her Master of Arts degree and doctorate in speech-language pathology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Joe Reichle, Ph.D., Professor, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, 115 Shevlin Hall, 164 Pillsbury Drive Southeast, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Dr. Joe Reichle holds appointments in the Departments of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences and Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of augmentative communication and communication intervention for persons with significant developmental disabilities and has written over 100 articles and chapters. Dr. Reichle has co-edited 10 books focused on his areas of expertise. He has served as a co-editor of the flagship journal (Journal of Speech-Language-Hearing Research) of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association. Dr. Reichle was a former Associate Chair of the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences. During his 33-year career he has served as a PI, co-PI, and investigator on numerous federally funded projects. Currently, he is the Director of the University of Minnesota's Leadership Training Program in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities.

Kathleen M. Feeley, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Special Education and Literacy, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, Brookville, New York 11367

Dr. Feeley is the clinical coordinator for the Certifi cate in Autism and Special Education Program at C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University. As the founder and director of the Center for Community Inclusion at C.W. Post Campus, Dr. Feeley provides training and technical assistance to families, school districts, and adult service agencies as they include individuals with developmental disabilities within their communities. She is also Senior Editor for the journal Down Syndrome Research and Practice and is a member of the international research group Research Action for People with Down Syndrome (RAPID), sponsored by Down Syndrome International.

Emily A. Jones, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11367

Dr. Jones received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the State University of New York Stony Brook. She was Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University. Dr. Jones teaches courses in applied behavior analysis and developmental disabilities. She also provides training and technical assistance to families, school districts, and other service providers to support children with developmental disabilities in inclusive settings. Dr. Jones's research involves the development and demonstration of interventions to address early emerging core deficits in young children with developmental disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome. Her current interests are in the area of social and communication skills, including joint attention in children with autism and early requesting skills in children with Down syndrome.

Nancy C. Brady, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Speech Language Hearing Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, Kansas 66045

Dr. Nancy Brady conducts research on early language and communication development in children and adults with severe disabilities, including individuals with autism, fragile x syndrome and deaf-blindness. Her research focuses on stages of prelinguistic development, assessing communication, teaching beginning AAC, and pragmatic aspects of early communication.

Dr. Smith is a New York State Licensed Psychologist. He has worked with children and adults with a variety of disabilities for over 20 years. His clinical and research interests include assessing and treating challenging behavior and functional communication training,

Krista M. Wilkinson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University, 308 Ford Building, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802

Dr. Krista Wilkinson is Professor at the Pennsylvania State University and Editor of the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (2014-2016). Dr. Wilkinson's research applies the tools of neuroscience to understand visual and cognitive processing of individuals with severe disabilities, in order to optimize visual augmentative and alternative communication interventions used to support their communication functioning.