"Autism at-a-Glance" is designed for high school staff members supporting students on the autism spectrum, as well as family members of adolescents on the autism spectrum. This issue focuses on understanding and improving the communication skills of adolescents on the autism spectrum. The content specifically targets the needs of…

"Autism at-a-Glance" is designed for high school staff members supporting students on the autism spectrum, as well as family members of adolescents on the autism spectrum. This issue was designed to support high school staff and family members in understanding and improving the communication skills of adolescents on the autism spectrum.…

The article describes an approach to aphasia description and intervention based on analysis of speech pauses and hesitations. The concepts of pause, planning, and paraphasia (a language production error involving substitution or replacement) are distinguished. Three case studies illustrate application of the technique. (DB)

Presents an "expose" of academic jargon that often confuses educators and other readers. The terms are humorously defined to reveal the money and status struggles that protect academics from "unhealthy preoccupation" with teaching and scholarship. (CJH)

Many Down Syndrome children have some disruption in the oral communicative processes, including an unusual voice quality which may have negative social effects. Factors to be considered include fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency range, frequency perturbations, amplitude perturbations, spectral noise, formant amplitude, and oral and nasal…

In families with two working parents, fathers make important contributions to children's early language skills. Results from a new study by FPG Child Development Institute show that children whose fathers' vocabulary was more varied when they were two, had greater language skills at age three. Mother's vocabulary was not found to have a…

Drawing as therapy for the expressively restricted aphasic adult is discussed with sections on: drawing and acquired brain damage, communication through drawing in aphasia, and training expressively restricted aphasic patients to draw communicatively by use of the Lyon/Sims Program. (DB)

This bibliographic review aims to present a single comprehensive source of references to facilitate clinical application of data obtained on the vocal activity of normal infants and to facilitate continued research on prelinguistic vocal output. The bibliography cites the published observational, empirical, and theoretical reports that examine the…

Evidence based and comprehensive, this important work offers a new approach to understanding and intervening with students with learning disabilities. The authors--leading experts in neuropsychology and special education--present a unique model of learning disabilities that integrates the cognitive, neural, genetic, and contextual factors…

Little effort has been made to combine the "writing-to-oneself" process with an exercise in creative thinking as an effective way to teach any subject or to learn a given subject. A program to combine writing and a creativity exercise to foster learning for students studying basic economics is described. (MLW)

Children with language delays often manifest low rates of self-initiated expressive language, particularly in school settings. Children with mild to moderate language delays appear to develop this pattern as a means of coping with situations in which they believe they are unable to perform or may perform poorly. Interactive language training…

The article describes a series of 10 games designed to improve the communication skills of pupils with severe learning difficulties. The games encourage attention development, initiating comments, and giving and receiving instructions. (DB)

Landau-Kleffner syndrome is characterized by difficulty in receptive or expressive language, abnormal electroencephalograms, and seizures. This article describes the primary and secondary characteristics of children with this syndrome and offers educators a framework for intervention techniques. These include using predictable language, creating…

Writing is now being viewed in its larger context of communication. Research suggests that young children use the more familiar communication systems like speech, drawing, music, and drama to add depth and meaning to their writing. Teachers must redefine their ideas about writing and children's communication knowledge. Cites six references. (MLH)

Describes an exercise designed to introduce basic concepts and techniques for a course in qualitative research methods. Discusses differences in the meaning of phrases on a student evaluation of teaching form. Suggests that the exercise will show how differences in meaning are connected to real social and political problems. (DK)