augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
Classroom-based Communication Instruction: The Project Core Implementation Model
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to the Project Core research team including: Karen Erickson (PI), Claire Greer, Penny Hatch, Skip Ryan, Kathryn Dorney & Sofia Benson-Goldberg. This article was produced, in part, under U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs Grants No. H327S140017 and No. H327S190005. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or polices of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. As an assistive technology community, we believe in the basic right for all to communicate. We understand the inherent power this right affords. Yet many students who are considered to have significant cognitive disabilities do not have access to personal augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solutions or evidence-based communication instruction to help them learn to communicate in flexible ways across partners, purposes, and environments. The term significant cognitive disabilities is used by the United States Department of Education (2005) to describe students who have a disability or multiple disabilities that signifi- cantly impact intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. These students require extensive, repeated, individualized instruction, substantially adapted and modified materials and
individualized methods of accessing information in alternate ways to acquire, maintain, generalize, demonstrate and transfer skills across settings (Dynamic Learning Maps Consortium, 2016). Students who fall within this group are eligible for special education services under a variety of categories such as autism, multiple disabilities, intellectual disability and deaf-blindness. Many students with significant cognitive disabilities are at early levels of communication ability, with between 18 (Towles- Reeves et al., 2012) to 35 percent (Browder, Flowers, & Wakeman, 2008) not yet using speech, sign language or symbols to express themselves. For students who are reported to use symbols, their use is often quite limited. Results of one survey found that 70% of the 7,699 students with significant cognitive disabili- ties used only single symbols for a limited range of commu- nication purposes during their school day (Erickson & Geist, 2016). Students with limited speech and significant disabilities need consistent access to AAC systems that go beyond single symbols, and they require targeted instruction aimed at their continued communication growth. This has been the focus of an effort called Project Core. Project Core is a Stepping-Up Technology Implementation project funded by the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (#H327S140017). Project Core aims to provide teachers, teaching assistants and related classroom staff with the training, tools and resources needed to teach symbolic communication. The approach includes
LORI GEIST , PhD, CCC-SLP, is an assistant professor at the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the research faculty at UNC, Lori worked in direct service, consultation and product development, with her efforts concentrated on intervention approaches that target communication, language and literacy outcomes for individuals with complex communication needs. Her research interests center on leveraging technology in the delivery of effective intervention. She is the project director for Project Core and co-PI for Building Bridges from Emergent to Conventional Literacy, two federally-funded research initiatives.
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