This proposal focuses on the communicative competence and performance among persons with mental retardation of widely varying ages and levels of development. The project should provide data that can contribute to an integration of psycholinguistic, cognitive, and behavioral theory about language, as well as adding to the knowledge of the ways in which humans use (and can be taught) language in social context. The plan is to use our developing research methodology to clarify the developmental history of several crucial communication issues: 1. Categorization, including individual differences in acquisition, performance, and retention. 2. Progression from natural gestures to symbolization, and from nonverbal concepts to language. 3. Verbal mediation of problem solving. 4. Generalization and transfer, including the facilitation of decontextualization. Issue one, categorization, is integrated into each of the six projects as a unifying focus for the research program. Issues two, three and four are also crucial in the acquisition of communication competencies. The last three issues are domains of communicative development into which categories are mapped. Within these organizing issues, we use methods that stem from behavior-analytic, cognitive, and psycholinguistic theory.
| Olswang, Lesley B; Dowden, Patricia; Feuerstein, Julie et al. (2014) Triadic gaze intervention for young children with physical disabilities. J Speech Lang Hear Res 57:1740-53 |
| Brady, Nancy C; Anderson, Christa J; Hahn, Laura J et al. (2014) Eye tracking as a measure of receptive vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorders. Augment Altern Commun 30:147-59 |
| Brady, Nancy C; Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy; Fleming, Kandace et al. (2013) Predicting language outcomes for children learning augmentative and alternative communication: child and environmental factors. J Speech Lang Hear Res 56:1595-612 |
| Barker, R Michael; Akaba, Sanae; Brady, Nancy C et al. (2013) Support for AAC use in preschool, and growth in language skills, for young children with developmental disabilities. Augment Altern Commun 29:334-46 |
| Olswang, Lesley B; Feuerstein, Julie L; Pinder, Gay Lloyd et al. (2013) Validating dynamic assessment of triadic gaze for young children with severe disabilities. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 22:449-62 |
| Saunders, Muriel D; Sella, Ana Carolina; Attri, Dua et al. (2013) Establishing a conditional signal for assistance in teenagers with blindness. Res Dev Disabil 34:1488-97 |
| Brady, Nancy C; Fleming, Kandace; Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy et al. (2012) Development of the communication complexity scale. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 21:16-28 |
| Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy (2012) Peer-Mediated AAC Instruction for Young Children with Autism and other Developmental Disabilities. Perspect Augment altern commun 21: |
| Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy S; Brady, Nancy C; Fleming, Kandace K (2012) Symbolic play of preschoolers with severe communication impairments with autism and other developmental delays: more similarities than differences. J Autism Dev Disord 42:863-73 |
| Saunders, Muriel D; Saunders, Richard R (2012) Teaching Individuals to Signal for Assistance in a Timely Manner. Behav Interv 27: |
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