Project III: Child and Environmental Predictors of Communication Success by beginning VOCA users. The proposed research systematically extends the investigator's research on successful communication, including success following communication breakdowns, to the population of preschool children learning to communicate with VOCAs. We will be investigating parameters surrounding successful communication at the cusp of beginning symbolic communication. The investigator's recently completed research showed that preschool -age children frequently experienced communication breakdowns during the course of natural conversations with their mothers. Participants' skills in repairing these breakdowns were related to their extant expressive and receptive communication skills and to their mothers' responsivity. Preschool children learning to communicate with VOCAs appear particularly vulnerable to communication breakdowns due to partner familiarity with VOCAs and access to VOCAs across environments. The purpose of the proposed research is to identify specific child and environmental predictors of successful communication and other indices of communication growth for 50 preschool-age children learning to communicate with VOCAs. We hypothesize that the specific variables we have found to predict child communicative success in our past research will also predict success by children learning VOCA communication. In addition, we hypothesize that environmental variables including how VOCAs are incorporated into classroom instruction and home activities will relate to children's successful communication. These hypotheses will be investigated by measuring children's communication rate, vocabulary growth both in VOCA symbol selection and speech vocabulary, and measuring proportions of successful communication overtime. Success will be determined by applying our operational definition that relies on both child communication acts and partner responses to these communication acts. Growth curve modeling will be used to determine patterns of growth over a 2 year period by children with differing abilities at the start of intervention, and who are experiencing different amounts of environmental support for AAC in their classroomenvironments.
| 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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