Multimodal AAC for Individuals with Down Syndrome

Many people with Down syndrome—one of the most common genetically-linked developmental disabilities—experience difficulty developing spoken and written communication skills. In this groundbreaking book, discover how augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can enhance communicative competence and improve outcomes for people with Down syndrome across the lifespan. The newest volume in Beukelman and Light’s respected Augmentative and Alternative Communication Series, this book fully explores how interdisciplinary, multimodal AAC strategies can promote speech, language, and literacy success across many contexts, including homes, schools, communities, health care settings, and the workplace.

Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of more than 25 experts on AAC and Down syndrome, this is a must-have resource for speech-language pathologists, special educators, and AAC specialists—and a key supplementary text for courses on AAC and developmental disabilities. Use the research-based guidance in this book to help people with Down syndrome develop stronger communication skills and participate meaningfully in their schools and communities, from early childhood through adulthood.

READERS WILL LEARN HOW TO:

• Skillfully pair unaided AAC supports (gestures and manual signs) with aided AAC (technology and other supports external to the body)
• Enrich young children’s communication and language development with AAC
• Use AAC to boost older children’s vocabulary, grammatical language, and narrative language skills
• Enhance reading instruction using AAC technology
• Supplement speech and improve speech intelligibility with carefully chosen interventions and visual communication aids
• Engage whole families as collaborative partners to integrate AAC supports into everyday life
• Address young adults’ communication needs, as they evolve to include more varied communication partners, more complex topics, and new contexts
• Assess cognitive and social functioning in adolescents and adults who use AAC
• Support communication and self-advocacy across health care settings with AAC strategies

Krista M. Wilkinson, Ph.D., is a professor at the Pennsylvania State University and Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She was Editor/Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology from 2012–2016. Dr. Wilkinson’s current research applies the tools of neuroscience, in particular automated eye tracking technologies, to understand visual and cognitive processing of individuals with severe disabilities, with the goal of using this information to optimize visual augmentative and alternative communication interventions used to support their communication functioning.

Lizbeth H. Finestack, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences. She is also a speech-language pathologist certified by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Dr. Finestack’s long-term research aim is to identify efficient and effective language interventions for children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders, including children with developmental language disorder, Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, or autism spectrum disorder. She has built a research program focused on developing new child language intervention techniques, better understanding the language profiles of children and adolescents with differing neurodevelopmental disorders, and measuring intervention outcomes of individuals with different language and cognitive profiles.

Leonard Abbeduto, Ph.D., is the Director of the MIND Institute, the Tsakopoulos-Vismara Endowed Chair, and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Abbeduto’s research is focused broadly on the development of language across the lifespan in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders and the family context for language development. Dr. Abbeduto has received numerous awards, including the Emil A. Steiger Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Faculty Stewardship Award from the University of California, Davis, the Enid and William Rosen Research Award from the National Fragile X Foundation, and Edgard Doll Award for Distinguished Research Contributions from Division 33 of the American Psychological Association. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1982.

Phebe Albert, M.A., is currently a fifth-year graduate student in the Clinical Neuropsychology program at Georgia State University. Albert completed her B.S. in Psychology at the University of Florida. She also received a Post-Baccalaureate Research Training Award through the National Institute of Mental Health where she worked as a research coordinator in the Pediatric and Developmental Neuroscience branch. Her current research interests are broadly in the language and cognitive development of children with developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.

Salena Babb, M.Ed., is a Ph.D student in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education. Her research interests include implementing augmentative and alternative communication within community, vocational, and social settings for adolescents with severe disabilities and complex communication needs. Specifically, she is interested in communication opportunities that occur during those activities and how to provide communication supports for both the individual with complex communication needs as well as the communication partner.

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.

Marie Moore Channell, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Channell earned her Ph.D. in psychology with a concentration in developmental science from the University of Alabama. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis MIND Institute. Her research characterizes the development of cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional skills that support everyday communication in individuals with Down syndrome and other disorders associated with intellectual disability.

Candace Evans, M.A., is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Georgia State University. Broadly, she is interested in the development of social emotional competence, and the role that language abilities plays in social development, in children who are atypically developing.

Evelyn L. Fisher, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral fellow in pediatric neuropsychology at University of New Mexico. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in neuropsychology at Georgia State University. She completed her internship at Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in the neuropsychology and deaf/hard of hearing track. Her research and clinical interests involve maximizing language and communication outcomes among children with medical conditions and comorbid developmental disabilities, with a particular interest in assessment of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users.

Gregory M. Fosco, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and serves as the Associate Director of the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at The Pennsylvania State University. His work reflects an intersection of family, developmental, and prevention science. He studies family systems processes, including family-level, interparental, and parent-adolescent relationships as they relate to adolescent developmental risk for substance use, problem behavior, and internalizing problems, as well as the role of the family in promoting adolescent well-being. His other line of research focuses on evaluating evidence-based prevention programs, such as the Family Check-Up and PROSPER.

Christine Holyfield, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Arkansas. Her research is focused on evaluating augmentative and alternative communication technology and strategies for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including individuals who are beginning communicators. She has presented and published both nationally and internationally on augmentative and alternative communication. She teaches courses related to language disorders, language intervention, and augmentative and alternative communication.

Raymond D. Kent, Ph.D.is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Kent’s primary research interests are (1) speech intelligibility in various clinical populations, especially motor speech disorders in children and adults, (2) typical and atypical development of speech in children, and (3) the development and refinement of methods for the study of speech and its disorders. Most recently, he collaborated on a NIH-supported project that uses MR and CT imaging along with acoustic analyses to study the anatomic development of the vocal tract in relation to its acoustic properties. Dr. Kent has published several specialty books and is currently working on a dictionary of communication sciences and disorders.

Gal Kaldes, CCC-SLP, is a Ph.D. student at Georgia State University and a licensed speech-language pathologist. She has had both clinical and research experience with children who demonstrate significant language delays and benefit from augmentative and alternative communication. Her research interests currently focus on grammar of children with language impairments and its influence on literacy development.

Emily Laubscher, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and doctoral candidate in communication sciences and disorders. She has over 10 years of experience working with individuals with complex communication needs. Her research aims to develop interventions for individuals who are beginning communicators and who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

Marika R. King, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education at Utah State University. She completed her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of New Mexico and her doctorate in Developmental Psychology at Georgia State University. Her research interests center around understanding and supporting the communication outcomes of bilingual children who use augmentative and alternative communication.

Susan J. Loveall, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Science and Cognitive Psychology from the University of Alabama and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Life Span Institute at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on learning, language, and literacy in intellectual and developmental disabilities, with a special focus on the Down syndrome phenotype.

Kelsey Mandak, Ph.D., is currently the AAC Research and Outreach Coordinator in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Penn State University. Through Kelsey’s research and teaching, she hopes to enhance our understanding of the challenges and benefits of family-centered AAC services, improve the implementation of such services, and identify effective ways to train pre-service and in-service SLPs in acquiring family-centered knowledge and skills.

David B. McNaughton, Ph.D., teaches coursework in augmentative communication, assistive technology, and collaboration skills for working with parents and educational team members. He is especially interested in the development and evaluation of online educational materials to build capacity in AAC service delivery. Dr. McNaughton's research interests include literacy instruction for individuals who rely on AAC, and employment supports for individuals with severe disabilities.

Emily D. McFadd, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist who received her doctorate from the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on understanding interactions between speech production and language skills for expressive communication in children with Fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome and Autism. She has a special interest in augmentative and alternative communication interventions for children with neurodevelopmental disorders who have limited speech.

Tara O’Neill, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, M/b>is an assistant professor at Misericordia University. Her primary area of interest is the design of aided AAC systems to meet the needs and skills of the individuals who use them. She is also interested in how the design of AAC systems can be responsive to family priorities and preferences, in order to improve family-centered practice.

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).

Bobbi L. Rohwer, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a Ph.D. student in the Speech-Language Hearing Sciences department at the University of Minnesota and a 2018–2019 Minnesota LEND Fellow. Prior to returning to academia, she worked as a pediatric speech-language pathologist specializing in complex communication needs and later as a content developer for a social skills app released in 2019.

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.

Stephanie L. Santoro, M.D., is a clinical geneticist dedicated to improving the health of patients with genetic syndromes. Her area of clinical expertise and research focus is Down syndrome.

Houri K. Vorperian, Ph.D., established the Vocal Tract Development Laboratory in 1995 at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her doctorate degree in 2000 with Dr. Ray Kent’s mentorship. She is a full time scientist directing the study of the biological basis of speech development with the lab’s mission to quantify the macroanatomic developmental changes of the oral and pharyngeal structures and cavities in typically and atypically developing individuals (e.g. Down syndrome and cerebral palsy), as well as speech acoustics, within the context of establishing anatomic-acoustic correlates to better understand the anatomic basis of speech development, production and its disorders. Her research focus is on assessing structure/function interactions in shaping vocal tract structures with the ultimate goal of promoting multi-disciplinary treatment approaches to enhance speech intelligibility and communication.

Casy Walters, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology department at Georgia State University. Casy’s research has examined the impact of early AAC intervention on speech sound development in toddlers. Prior to beginning her doctoral program, she worked as an SLP in both public school and private clinic settings.