The proposed studies represent an extension of an ongoing program of research. The major objectives of this research are to describe the extant communication abilities of children and adults with severe to profound mental retardation; and to identify the factors that are associated with the attainment (or nonattainment) of specific communication and language abilities by such individuals. The proposed studies will address five specific aims related to these overall objectives that have been identified on the basis of the applicant's current and previous research. All of these aims relate to a proposed model of communication development in this population that identifies a number of critical """"""""cusps"""""""" that have apparently been traversed by some individuals in the course of their communication development; but that represent the end point of that development for other individuals. The first three specific aims are: 1) To describe the extant communication abilities of a sample of young prelinguistic children with severe to profound mental retardation; 2) To describe the rate and sequence of communication skill development by these same subjects over a five year observational period; and 3) To determine whether specific child and/or environmental variables are significantly related to differential communication skill attainments by these subjects at the end of this observational period. These three aims will be addressed through a five year, repeated measures design involving 25 prelinguistic young children (ages 4 to 5 years at onset of observations) with severe to profound mental retardation. A battery of measures, including standardized assessments and direct observations of parent-child interaction, will be administered to each subject at least every six months, and more often with subjects who are arriving at the identified cusps at a faster pace.
Specific aims 4 and 5 are to determine whether specific intervention procedures are effective in helping individuals with severe mental retardation make the transition from presymbolic, distal gesture communication to referential symbolic communication (Aim 4); and across one or more other critical cusps, including that between contact gesture and distal gesture communication, and/or that between single symbol and linguistic (syntactic) communication (Aim 5). Subjects in these studies will include both children and young adults; and single subject research designs will be used to determine the effectiveness of specific treatment approaches for each subject.
| 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: |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 70 publications
