Education Commons^™

Toilet Training And Teaching Self-Initiations To Children With Autism Who Use Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Darcy A. Douglass

Honors Capstones

Within this project, we address the challenges faced by individuals, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), during toilet training, which often takes longer than neurotypical children. Practitioners who use traditional methods often overlook teaching children how to request bathroom use, especially among those who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices. Drawing from literature and expert recommendations, we summarize the importance of teaching independence in bathroom use for children with complex communication needs by incorporating their AAC devices when teaching toilet training.

Inspired by Perez et al. (2020), who demonstrated positive responses from individuals with ASD to reinforcement-based procedures, …

Investigating Bilingual Aac Practices In Bilingual Communities, Johanna R. Salisbury

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates best practices for teaching and supporting bilingual augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users as they develop their communication skills. Although there are guidelines that inform best practices for teaching and supporting bilingual AAC users, there is very little information on what these practices look like. This thesis investigates the techniques and strategies that bilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who practice in Catalunya, a bilingual community in northeastern Spain, use to evaluate, teach, and support people who use pictogram-based AAC modalities to communicate.

To do this, six SLPs who practice in Catalunya participated in interviews regarding their practices when …

Serving Culturally And Linguistic Students Identified With A Communication Disability In The K-12 Educational Environments, Lashell Dauterman

Theses and Dissertations

As more and more students enter public schools with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that require services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, facilitators must be more sensitive to the needs, especially in the area of communication. Augmentative and alternative communication devices and other assistive technology are required by law to be utilized with individuals identified as disabled. However, due to the challenges that exist in properly identifying and implementing intervention plans for children who require services as English language learners and special education, communication needs are often misidentified or not provided. Another issue that exists is the lack …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Motor Planning With Core Vocabulary: A Behavior Analytic Account, Alison Judith Karnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) increases, it is important for practitioners to continue to improve evidence-based practices (EBP) for the treatment of ASD symptoms (i.e., impairments in social communication and repetitive behaviors and restricted interests; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). It is estimated that 30-50% of individuals with autism do not acquire functional speech (Wodka, Mathy, & Kalb, 2013). These individuals would make appropriate candidates for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC; Mirenda, 2003). One form of AAC is the speech-generating device (SGD). Over the last ten years, tablet-based technologies including iPad minisⓇ have been emphasized in the …

Barriers To Change For Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Lauren E. Brown

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of counseling training on speech language pathologists’ (SLPs) perceived competency to address Attitude Barriers within the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) assessment process as presented by Beukelman and Mirenda (2005). Counseling techniques, such as the use of the Readiness to Change© tool, are within the scope of practice for SLPs. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research on how to apply these tools and techniques with individuals who use AAC .

A training seminar was conducted to educate participants in the use of the Readiness to Change© tool. Data was …