The importance of parent-child interaction (PCI) for language development has been well established. This has led many speech and language therapy (SLT) interventions to focus on modifying PCI as a means to improving children's early language delay. However, the success of such programs is mixed. The current review compares PCI, observed in…

This tutorial is designed to provide academic communication sciences and disorders (CSD) programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with a comprehensive instructional model on evidence-based practice (EBP). The model was designed to help students view EBP as an ongoing process needed in all clinical decision making. The three facets…

Many children born with severe and multiple disabilities have complex communication needs and may use no speech or only minimal speech to communicate. Meaningful assessment of their expressive skills to identify communication strengths along a developmental trajectory is an essential first step toward appropriate intervention. This article…

The purpose of this research was to replicate and extend some of the findings of Hart and Risley using automatic speech processing instead of human transcription of language samples. The long-term goal of this work is to make the current approach to speech processing possible by researchers and clinicians working on a daily basis with families and…

Treatment of preschool children with moderate to severe speech sound disorders is typically a long-term endeavor with many sounds and sound patterns requiring intervention. The purpose of this study was to determine if a communication-centered intervention would be effective in improving speech production with this population. The intervention…

This study used a mail survey to gather information from 409 school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the state of Michigan regarding the types of language assessment procedures they employed when assessing children's language skills. Descriptive data regarding respondents' demographic, caseload, and employment characteristics were also…

Adaptation of internationally adopted children to another culture and language has not been studied extensively. This study followed four infant girls from China during the 1st year postadoption, measuring vocabulary, gestural, social, communication, and symbolic behavior development each month. The children were also tested at 2 and 3 years…

Many schools across the nation are working to include online learning as a fundamental part of the collection of teaching strategies. In 2000, approximately 98% of the public schools in the United States were connected to the Internet (National Center for Education Statistics, 2001) and were working to expand their students' communication options…

As the culturally and linguistically diverse population of the United States continues to increase dramatically, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and special education teachers in particular face the challenge of how best to assess and teach those students whose primary language is not English. The changing U.S. demographics are driving a need…

This article focuses on applying systematic reviews to the Early Intervention (EI) literature. Systematic reviews are defined and differentiated from traditional, or narrative, reviews and from meta-analyses. In addition, the steps involved in critiquing systematic reviews and an illustration of a systematic review from the EI literature are…

The second of two articles on play reviews the construct of play and its development in typically developing infants, toddlers, and young children. It considers developmental levels of play from early sensorimotor-exploratory to symbolic play involving the functional components of agent, instrument, and scheme. A developmentally based,…

This article discusses alternative language assessment approaches with children for whom English is a second language. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach are noted. Also, results of a preliminary investigation with 28 bilingual Latino children using modifications of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals are presented.…

This position statement by the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities addresses access to communication services. It states that eligibility for communication services should be based on individual needs and argues that eligibility determination based on a priori criteria violate recommended…

This technical report was developed to provide support for a position statement by the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities that addresses access to communication services. It argues that eligibility policies and practices often preclude individuals from access to needed communication services.…

This article traces the development of speech audiometry in the United States and reports on the current status, focusing on the needs of a multilingual population in terms of measuring speech recognition threshold (SRT). It also discusses sociolinguistic considerations, alternative SRT stimuli for second language learners, and research on using…