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Then look no further than our partner, Autism-Community.com! Created and moderated by Abby Twyman, M.Ed., BCBA, Autism-Community.com offers individuals, families and professionals affected by autism a variety of resources and networking opportunities. At Autism-Community.com you will find: • The latest news, research results and information about Autism Spectrum Disorders.   • Information about education ranging from early intervention for young children to transitioning to employment in adulthood, and every stage in between.   • Strategies to address the communication challenges that can accompany ASDs. • Resources for parents and professionals caring for children and adults with ASDs.   • Interviews with authors and insights from guest bloggers.   • A community center where members can connect with others, share stories and ideas, and find support. So much information – all in one place! Visit Autism-Community.com today to experience it for yourself. DynaVox Mayer-Johnson 2100 Wharton Street, Suite 400, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 P: 1 (866) DYNAVOX F: 1 (412) 381-5241 © 2012 DynaVox. All rights reserved. Click here to unsubscribe

How Do Children with Autism Develop Speech? (Hodgdon)

From Linda Hodgdon

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 1:30 pm  

Many young children with autism are non-verbal or delayed in developing speech.  Speech Therapy or some type of early intervention program is recommended when those children are identified.

By the time a typically developing child is two, it is generally expected that they will be using some words to communicate.  The vocabulary of the typically developing toddler might contain somewhere between 75-225 words.  When young children do not develop those early words, that is a signal for further investigation.

A recent article highlighted Researchers at Bryn Mawr College’s Child Study Institute who have identified a list of 25 words that they suggest every (typically developing) child should be using by age two.

Here is their list of 25 common words that they say should form the building blocks of a (typically developing) toddler’s vocabulary:

-all gone    -baby     -ball     -banana     -bath     -bye bye     -book     -car      -cat     -cookie      -daddy     -dog      -eye      -hat      -hello/hi       -hot      -juice      -milk      -mommy      -more      -no      -nose     -shoe      -thank you      -yes

It’s an interesting list. . .typical food items, body parts, clothing.  The targeted words are those that are most commonly integrated into early interactions with young children during the course of daily activities.  Of course, the most important words on that list that young children speak are “no,” “yes,” “more” and “all gone.”

After looking at this list I have an important question.  What vocabulary is being targeted in early Speech Therapy or in the early intervention setting for children with autism?  How does that coordinate with this list of early words?

How do therapists, teachers and parents select the vocabulary to focus on when they teach speech to children with autism?

Please comment on your most important vocabulary (on Linda's blog - HERE!!!)

Great Ideas! No Time For Flashcards blog

A hot tip via Chapel Hill Snippets:

No Time For Flashcards heralds itself as a site for hands-on, exploration and craft activities geared to learners in the toddler to preschool range. We tend to work with learners that are often excited by activities that also relate to this young age group. I love it!

Take a look at their panoply of links to Spring-themed crafts, HERE 

(the first 12 of 100+ are included below)

1. Echo, echo!

2. Hidden treasure cake!

3. 20 Boredom Busters for Sick Days

4. Letter Learning Fun

5. 35 Ways to Have Fun Under One

6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Playdough

7. Puffy Paint Rainbows

8. Where the Wild Things Are TP Roll Puppets

9. Royal Mail

10. Go on a Smile Hunt with Your Child

11. Easter Egg Sound Set

12. LOTS and LOTS of Easter Activities

New Fav Blog - Chapel Hill Snippets

Chapel Hill Snippets (LINK) is Ruth Morgan,SLP,'s resource hub for sharing activities and materials for building picture-supported communication skills as well as Technology Tutorials (links list below). Many thanks to Holly Schneider, SLP, for this great blog tip!

I like this seasonal selection she links to (from Tarheel Reader) EASTER EGGS BOOK (by Leanna Ritchie) and her ICONS TO GO WITH IT. (HERE is my own comm board, a few more choices) in addition to the Egg Coloring book (below).
Thank you Ruth!

SHARING MATERIALS from Chapel Hill Snippets

 Number Puffs Powerpoint Recipe






Ocean Book Packet

Easter Egg coloring direction booklet

Cats and Verbs---free book and directions for a puppet

 Dogs and Verbs book to download

 Counting Horses + Verbs book to download

What Can Horses Do?  Smartboard lesson to download

Three items from our winter unit to download

 Friendship Hearts---yummy simple recipe booklet

 

 Snowman, Snowman--Smartboard lesson

 The Very Hungry Reindeer--Printable and Smartboard

 Roll the die; Build a Snowman Smartboard Game

 Christmas Tree Smartboard Activity

Valentine Toast--Recipe Book and communication board 

 Valentine Feelings book

 Counting buttons---low tech and high tech

 Hearts Everywhere---printable book to download

 Love Bug (Smartboard--high tech download, plus link to low tech)

Quick as a Cricket visuals 

 Self Regulation Scale

 Pronouns, people, animals, feelings
printable book and icons

 Pronouns book to print--He, She, They

A streamer rainbow--printable directions and communication board

Shamrocks Everywhere!  Printable book

Links to TECH TUTORIALS from Chapel Hill Snippets (scroll over and click)

Recording data with your iPad 

Putting forms on your home screen for recording data 

Tutorial for adding Boardmaker to Proloquo2Go (Ipad 2)

Screen Capture of Boardmaker icons to Proloquo2Go (iPad 1)
PC--Boardmaker to Proloquo2Go Tutorial
Saving images from the internet into your iPad
Downloading YouTube videos to edit

Research on AAC in Autism

Karen Duerk in Lakewood, Colorado, is looking to review literature on AAC in Autism via the ASHA special interest group Division 12 (AAC).

Here's what's been posted so far (some peer reviewed, some background): 

 

Adamson, L.B., Romski, M.A., Deffebach, K., Sevcik, R.A. (1992). "Symbol Vocabulary and the Focus of Conversations: Augmenting Language Development for Youth with Mental Retardation." Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 1333-1343.

Beukelman, David R. and Mirenda, Pat. (2005). Augmentative & Alternative Communication. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Co.

Blischak, Doreen, Lombardino, Linda, and Dyson, Alice. (2003). "Use of Speech-Generating Devices: in support of Natural Speech." Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 19:1, 29-35.

Cannon, B., & Edmond, G. (2009, April 14). "A few good words: Using core vocabulary to support nonverbal students." The ASHA Leader. 14(5), 20-22.

DeThorne, Laura S., Johnson, Cynthia J., Waler, Louise, Mahurin-Smith, Jamie. (2009). "When 'Simon Says' Doesn't Work: Alternatives to Imitation for Facilitating Early Speech Development." American Journal of Speech Language. 18, 133-145.

Erickson, K. (1996). "From Picture Producers to Real Language and Literacy: A Practical Guide." Paper presented at the 10th US Minspeak Conference, Wooster, OH.

Finke, Erinn H.; McNaughton, David B.; Drager, Kathryn D. R. (Jun, 2009). 'All children can and should have the opportunity to learn': General education teacher's perspectives on including children with autism spectrum disorder who require ACC. AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Vol 25(2). pp. 110-122.

Ganz, Jennifer B.; Earles-Vollrath, Theresa L.; Heath, Amy K.; Parker, Richard I.; Rispoli, Mandy J.; Duran, Jaime B. (Jan, 2012). A meta-analysis of single case research studies on aided augmentative and alternative communication systems with individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol 42(1). pp. 60-74.

Ganz, Jennifer B.; Lashley, Erin; Rispoli, Mandy Jenkins. (Dec, 2010). Non-responsiveness to intervention: Children with autism spectrum disorders who do not rapidly respond to communication interventions. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Vol 13(6). pp. 399-407.

Millar, Diane C., Light, Janice C., and Schlosser, Ralf W. (2006). "The Impact of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on the Speech Production of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities: A Research Review." Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 49, 248-264.

Ming, X., Brimacombe, M., and Wagner, G. (2007). "Prevalence of motor impairment in autism spectrum disorders." Brain & Development. 29, 565-570.

Mirenda, P. (2001). Autism, Augmentative Communication, and Assistive Technology: What Do We Really Know? Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 16(3), 141-151.

Mirenda, P. (2003). Toward Functional Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Students With Autism: Manual Signs, Graphic Symbols, and Voice Output Communication Aids. Language Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 34(3), 203-216.

Mirenda, P. (2008). "A back door approach to autism and AAC." Augmentative and Alternative Communication. 24, 219-233.

Parsons, C. L., and La Sorte, D. (1993). "The effect of computers with synthesized speech and no speech on the spontaneous communication of children with autism." Australian Journal of Human Communication Disorder., 21, 12-31.

Pinker, Steven. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: W. Morrow and Co.

Romski, M. A., and Sevcik, R. A. (1996). Breaking the Speech Barrier: Language Development Through Augmented Means. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Co.

Schlosser, R., and Wendt, O., (2008). "Effects of augmentative and alternative communication intervention on Speech production in children with autism: A systematic review." American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 17, 212-230.

Schlosser, Ralf W.; Sigafoos, Jeff; Luiselli, James K.; Angermeier, Katie; Harasymowyz, Ulana; Schooley, Katherine; Belfiore, Phil J. (Apr-Jun, 2007). Effects of synthetic speech output on requesting and natural speech production in children with autism: A preliminary study. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vol 1(2), pp. 139-163.

Stuart, Sheela and Ritthaler, Christopher. (2008). "Case Studies of Intermediate Steps/ Between AAC Evaluations and Implementation. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication. 17, 150-155.

Trembath, David; Balandin, Susan; Togher, Leanne; Stancliffe, Roger J. (2009). Peer-mediated teaching and augmentative and alternative communication for preschool-aged children with autism. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Vol 34(2), pp. 173-186.

Trottier, Nadine; Kamp, Lorraine; Mirenda, Pat; (Mar, 2011). Effects of peer-mediated instruction to teach use of speech-generating devices to students with autism in social game routines. AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Vol 27(1). pp. 26-39.

Vanderheiden, G. C, and Kelso, D. P. (1987). "Comparative analysis of fixed-vocabulary communication acceleration techniques." AAC Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 3, 196-206.