Communication Interventions for Individuals with Severe Disabilities: Exploring Research Challenges and Opportunities

What does the latest research tell us about communication interventions for people with severe disabilities? Find out in this authoritative research volume, which investigates the effectiveness of today's communication interventions, synthesizes evidence from current studies, and identifies urgent research directions for the future.

Shaped by a conference of The National Joint Committee on the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities (NJC),* this interdisciplinary book includes contributions from more than 30 top scholars from diverse fields, including psychology, special education, and speech-language pathology. Each chapter gives readers a brief summary of research studies on a key intervention topic, insights on research design and measurement challenges, thoughts on future advances, and real-world clinical and educational recommendations. Essential for the reference libraries of educators and professionals, this book offers powerful insights about today's communication interventions—and sets a clear agenda for tomorrow's groundbreaking research.

TOPICS COVERED:

• prelinguistic communication intervention for young children with intellectual disabilities
• challenging behavior and communicative alternatives
• interventions for children who are deafblind
• augmented language interventions for children with severe disabilities
• parents as partners in communication intervention
• the role of cultural, ethnic, and linguistic differences
• targeted and phenotypic communication interventions for children with Down syndrome or ASD
• issues related to research study design, including sample size, the effectiveness of randomized controlled trials, and integration of single-case and group designs
• assessment and measurement of communication and language skills in individuals with severe intellectual disabilities
• and more

*The NJC conference was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders .

Rose A. Sevcik, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Developmental Psychology Doctoral Program. She is the founding co-director of the university's Area of Focus: Research on Challenges to Acquiring Language and Literacy and a member of the Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning (CRADL). She has made significant contributions to the field of developmental and learning disabilities and language and reading intervention research through more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, chapters, and books and numerous presentations at national and international conferences. She has been an investigator on 12 federally funded projects (NIH, IES) with a long history of working with schools. Dr. Sevcik is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. She also is a Fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and past President of its Communication Disorders Division. A member of the National Joint Committee on the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities, she is also on the Board of Directors for the United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

MaryAnn Romski, Ph.D., is Regents Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia State University, Director of the Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning and a founding member of the Center on Research on Challenges to Acquiring Language & Literacy. Dr. Romski is a certified speech-language pathologist with more than 40 years of clinical experience, a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), and the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. She received ASHA Honors in 2015. Her research program focuses on the communication development of children with developmental disorders who encounter difficulty speaking, particularly the development and evaluation of computerized communication interventions. Dr. Romski has published 3 books, more than 100 articles and chapters, and has given numerous national and international presentations. She is AAIDD’s representative to the National Joint Committee on the Communication Needs of Individuals with Severe Disabilities (NJC).

Roger Bakeman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia 30302

Dr. Roger Bakeman is professor emeritus in the Psychology Department at Georgia State University. A graduate of Antioch College, Bakeman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. He has consulted widely, primarily on matters of methodology and statistical analysis as related to infant and child typical and atypical development. He is also co-author with John M. Gottman of Observing Interaction: An Introduction to Sequential Analysis and with Vicenç Quera of Sequential Analysis and Observational Methods for the Behavioral Sciences.

R. Michael Barker, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, PCD 1017, Tampa, Florida 33620

Dr. Michael Barker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He teaches classes on language disorders, augmentative and alternative communication, and research methodology. His research focuses on assessment and instruction of phonological awareness and literacy in children who use augmentative and alternative communication.

Andrea Barton-Hulsey, M.A., CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders at Florida State University. Her research is focused on understanding factors that support language and literacy development in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her work is inclusive of children with limited speech ability who use augmentative and alternative communication systems to support language and reading development.

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.

Mo Chen, M.A., Doctoral Candidate, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, 250 Educational Sciences Building, 56 East River Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Ms. Mo Chen is currently completing her Ph.D. in the special education track of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. She has worked with children with developmental disabilities both in the United States and in China. Her research interests include function-based interventions for addressing problem behavior and conditional communication.

Curtis K Deutsch, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center and Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester Massachusetts 01655

Dr. Curtis Deutsch is an investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center and a member of an NICHD-supported Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC). His research program specializes in psychobiology and medical genetics. Within the IDDRC, he is co-PI on a quantitative methods core that supports the survey of small-n and single-subject analytic methods reviewed in this book.

Marc E. Fey, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, was emeritus professor for the Hearing and Speech Department at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He published numerous articles, chapters, and software programs on children’s speech and language development and disorders and wrote and edited three books on child-language intervention. He was editor of the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology from 1996 to 1998 and Chair of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association's (ASHA) publications board from 2003 to 2005. He received the Kawana Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publications and the Honors of the Association from ASHA.

In Memory of Marc E. Fey

The field of communication sciences lost a remarkable leader when Marc Fey passed away on September 12, 2023. At Brookes, we will remember him as the dedicated Co-Series Editor of the Communication and Language Intervention (CLI) book series, which he helped direct and expand for many years. Marc was not only a series editor but also a volume editor/author. One of those titles, Treatment of Language Disorders in Children, now in its second edition and slated for a third, has become a classic text for speech-language pathologists, for its balanced examination of interventions for emerging communication and language as well as more advanced language and literacy. A strong supporter of evidence-based practice, Marc brought his passion for research and commitment to well-designed intervention studies to the selection process for the CLI series. Those books benefited from his keen editorial and writing skills. Our staff who had the pleasure of working with him will remember many enjoyable moments at CLI Board meetings and his collaborative, encouraging leadership. His legacy will live on in the volumes he helped to envision and create for the field, and the difference he made in the lives of so many children with speech and language disorders.

David J. Francis, Ph.D., Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 4811 Calhoun Road, 3rd Floor, Houston, Texas 77204

Dr. David J. Francis is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair of Quantitative Methods and former Chairman of the Department of Psychology (2002-2014) at the University of Houston, where he also serves as Director of the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics. He was a recipient of the 2006 Albert J. Harris Award from the International Reading Association, and has received the University of Houston's Teaching Excellence Award and the Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award, and in 2008 received the Esther Farfel Award, which recognizes career accomplishments in research, teaching, and service, and is the highest award given to faculty members at the University of Houston.

Howard Goldstein, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a nationally known scholar in the field of child language intervention research and the author of two books and more than 100 scholarly articles. His recent work has sought to enhance the language and literacy development of students in high poverty schools who are at high risk for language and reading disabilities. A certified speech-language pathologist and former ASHA Vice President for Science and Research, Dr. Goldstein is currently Associate Dean of Research and Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences at University of South Florida in Tampa.

Lauren H. Hampton, Ph.D., Research Associate, Department of Special Education, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203

Lauren H. Hampton is a research associate at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Dr. Hampton's research focuses on early communication interventions, parent training interventions, and classroom interventions for children with autism. She has more than 10 years of experience implementing early interventions for children with autism and their families.

Anne-Therese Hunt, Sc.D., Consultant, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Shriver Center, 55 North Lake Avenue, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655

Dr. Anne Hunt, owner of Hunt Consulting Associates and former faculty member at Harvard University, provides statistical and epidemiologic consulting services to the Boston Area medical research community. She also serves as a biostatistician providing quantitative services and mentorship to members of the NICHD-supported Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center.

Ann Kaiser, Ph.D. is the Susan W. Gray Professor of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of more than 175 articles on early intervention for children with autism and other development communication disabilities. Her research focuses on therapist- and parent-implemented naturalistic interventions.

Connie Kasari, Ph.D., Professor, Human Development and Psychology, Center for Autism Research and Treatment, University of California Los Angeles, 68-268 Semel Institute, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90024

Dr. Connie Kasari is Professor of Human Development and Psychology at UCLA with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry. Since 1990 she has been on the faculty at UCLA where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses, and has been the primary advisor to more than 40 Ph.D. students. Her research projects include targeted interventions for early social communication development in at risk infants, toddlers and preschoolers with autism, and peer relationships for school-aged children with autism. She is on the science advisory board of the Autism Speaks Foundation, and regularly presents to both academic and practitioner audiences locally, nationally, and internationally.

Joanne B. Kledaras, M.A., Senior Research Scientist, Praxis, Inc., 69 West Street, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478

Ms. Joanne Kledaras received her B. A. in special education from the University of Connecticut and her M.A. in applied behavior analysis from Northeastern University. Throughout her career, she has pursued parallel clinical and research activities, primarily in private and public special education settings. She is presently working on projects aimed at applying recent research findings and technology to develop more effective methods for teaching behavioral prerequisites for augmentative and alternative communication and rudimentary reading.

William J. McIlvane, Ph.D., Professor, Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 333 South Street, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545

Dr. William McIlvane directs a research program that addresses a number of topics relevant to understanding and perhaps correcting behavior deficits of persons with neurodevelopmental disorders. His primary foci are procedures to encourage rapid learning of behaviors involved in symbolic communication and relevant assistive technologies to support efforts of clinicians and special educators. Methods developed in his research are now being applied to teach functional skills in regular and special education in the US and internationally, especially via a long-term collaboration with a large university network in Brazil.

Lee K. McLean, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, School of Medicine, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599

Prior to her retirement in 2013, Dr. Lee McLean served as Chair/Associate Dean of the Department of Allied Health Sciences/School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina. Prior to that position, she and her husband, James McLean, worked at Kansas University where they conducted research and training related to communication needs of persons with severe disabilities. Dr. Lee is an ASHA Fellow and served as Chair of the National Joint Committee on the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities from 2000-2007.

Beth A. Mineo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Education, and Center Director, Center for Disabilities Studies, University of Delaware, 461 Wyoming Road, Newark, Deleware 19716

Dr. Beth Mineo is the Director of the Center for Disabilities Studies, Director of the Assistive Technology Unit at the Center, and Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Trained as a speech/language pathologist and specializing in supports for individuals with significant learning and communication disabilities, she has extensive experience in project design and implementation, services for individuals with disabilities, and assistive technology development, utilization and policy. She currently conducts research and implementation projects focusing on accessible instructional materials, language representation, and utilization of assistive technology with children 0-5.

Billy T. Ogletree, Ph.D., CCC-SLP,Professor and Head, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western Carolina University, 4121 Little Savannah Road, 158A HHSB, Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723

Dr. Billy Ogletree is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Western Carolina University. His research interests include the communication abilities and needs of individuals with severe intellectual disabilities, including autism. Dr. Ogletree chairs the National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities.

Amy T. Parker, Ed.D., Assistant Fellow, Teaching Research Institute, Western Oregon University, 345 Monmouth Avenue North, Monmouth, Oregon 97361

Dr. Amy Parker has 20 years of experience working with people who are deaf-blind as an employment specialist, independent living teacher, in-home parent trainer and advocate. She received her doctorate in special education with an emphasis in deaf-blindness and a certification in orientation and mobility in 2009 through a U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education-funded leadership and enrichment fellowship. She's interested in single-subject research as a means of validating intervention practices and has collaborated in participatory action research with colleagues to empower consumers and families in systems.

Diane Paul, Ph.D., Director, Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2200 Research Boulevard, Rockville, Maryland 20850

Dr. Diane Paul is the Director of Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and an ASHA Fellow. Dr. Paul provides professional consultation, develops education programs and products, and creates speech-language pathology practice resources. Dr. Paul is co-author of the Quality of Communication Life Scale, Talking on the Go, and RTI in Action. She serves as ex officio to the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities.

Christine Regiec, Research Laboratory Manager, The Pennsylvania State University, 308 Ford Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

Christine Regiec received her B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from The Pennsylvania State University. For the past two years she has worked as Dr. Krista Wilkinson's Research Laboratory Manager on the study of visual supports in communication and education. She will be attending Western Carolina University in the Fall of 2015 where she will pursue her M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

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.

Katherine T. Rhodes, M.A., Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia 30302

Ms. Katherine Rhodes is currently completing her dissertation in Developmental Psychology at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on mathematics cognition and measurement, especially for children who are linguistic minorities in the United States.

Megan Y. Roberts, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Jane Steiner Hoffman and Michael Hoffman Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208

Dr. Megan Roberts is an assistant professor in the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her work focuses on family-centered early communication interventions for young children with language delays. This clinically based line of research examines different variations of parent-implemented communication interventions tailored specifically for different populations of children with language delays. Her research has been funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Institute of Education Sciences.

Charity Mary Rowland, Ph.D., Professor, Institute on Disability and Development, Oregon Health and Science University, 707 Southwest Gaines Street, Portland, Oregon 97239

Dr. Charity Rowland directs the Design to Learn Projects at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR. Trained in developmental and experimental psychology, she has conducted extensive research related to communication and cognitive development in individuals with complex communication needs. She is the author of The Communication Matrix.

Richard W. Serna, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts- Lowell, 113 Wilder Street, Suite 300, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854

Dr. Richard Serna received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Utah State University in 1987. He has held faculty positions in the Department of Psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University and the Department of Psychiatry at University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Serna's career-long research interest has been in the area of stimulus control and discrimination learning—both visual and auditory—in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities. His research has been funded through grant support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Stephanie Yoshiko Shire, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of California Los Angeles, 67-446, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90024

Dr. Stephanie Shire is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California Los Angeles focusing on community-based interventions and supports for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Ellin B. Siegel, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 301 Barkley Memorial Center, PO Box 830738, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583

Dr. Ellin Siegel coordinates the graduate training programs in autism spectrum disorders and severe disabilities and teaches the coursework in these areas on-campus and via distance education. Dr. Siegel has conducted research in natural school and home settings for children and youth with severe disabilities and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Her research focus has included identifying communication and environmental variables between individuals who do not use speech and their communication partners and validating teaching and assessment strategies.

Ashlyn L. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Researcher, Hussman Institute for Autism, 5521 Research Park Drive, Catonsville, Maryland 21228

Dr. Ashlyn Smith is an associate clinical researcher at the Hussman Institute for Autism. Her research focuses on issues related to language development and intervention for families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Specifically, she investigates the role augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can play in facilitating language development for children at risk for not developing speech, the involvement of parents in implementing AAC strategies, and collateral effects this may have on the family system.

Martha E. Snell, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Special Education, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, 405 Emmet Street, Charlottesville Virginia 22904

Dr. Martha Snell is a Professor Emeritus of Special Education at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia where she directed the teacher preparation program in severe disabilities for 30 years. With others, she has authored a number of books on teaching methods and the definition of intellectual disability and has been an active member of TASH and the American Association for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She directed both federal and state grants directed toward the preparation of teachers and research with individuals having intellectual disability and autism and their teachers; more recently her research has concerned Head Start classrooms and young children at risk. Her research topics have encompassed the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms, effective teaching strategies, communication intervention, and positive behavior support for problem behavior.

Lorraine Sylvester, Ph.D., PT, Clinical Assistant Professor, Lee Mitchener Tolbert Center for Developmental Disabilities, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Oklahoma, 1200 North Stonewall Avenue, Room 1133, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73117

Dr. Lorraine Sylvester teaches physical and occupational therapy students in the pre-professional DPT and MOT programs, respectively. She provides consultative services to individuals with developmental disabilities, their family members, and other support personnel across Oklahoma.