This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Sack, S. H. Articles by McLean, L. K. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Training Communication Partners

The New Challenge for Communication Disorders Professionals Supporting Persons with Severe Disabilities

Sara H. Sack, PhD, is the director of the Communication Disorders Department at the Parsons State Hospital & Training Center serving individuals with developmental disabilities. She is also the director of the Assistive Technology for Kansans Project through the University of Kansas. Address: Sara H. Sack, Parsons Research Center, University of Kansas, 2601 Gabriel, Parsons, KS 67357.

Lee K. McLean

Lee K. McLean, PhD, is the director of the A.J. Pappinikou Center at the University of Connecticut. She was the former director for the University of Kansas Affiliated Programs at Parsons.

If individuals who have severe disabilities are to hold meaningful jobs in the community, take part in leisure events and activities with the general public, and live as independently as possible, they need to communicate effectively with other people in all those environments. Without specific attention to environments and interactions, individuals who do not use symbolic communication systems or who use nonspeech symbolic systems are at risk for few opportunities to communicate and limited expectations to issue a full range of communication messages. Communication disorders professionals today must focus attention on developing communication-rich environments and on working with communication partners to ensure that they expect, recognize, and respond to communication from individuals with severe disabilities. Training efforts must extend to the daily communication partners and must include friends, family members, support staff, and others. Developing Communicative Interactions (DCI), a data-based staff training program that supports the development of a prescribed set of interaction skills by interacting communication partners is reviewed. The merits of staff training efforts that are tailored to the specific needs of the individual being supported are also considered, as well as new online staff training options. The authors call for additional research to specifically document the effects of training communication partners and the development of new training materials.

Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, Vol. 12, No. 3, 151-158 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/108835769701200303


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?