If individuals who have severe disabilities are to hold meaningful jobs in the community, take part in leisure events and activities with the general public, and live as independently as possible, they need to communicate effectively with other people in all those environments. Without specific attention to environments and interactions, individuals who do not use symbolic communication systems or who use nonspeech symbolic systems are at risk for few opportunities to communicate and limited expectations to issue a full range of communication messages. Communication disorders professionals today must focus attention on developing communication-rich environments and on working with communication partners to ensure that they expect, recognize, and respond to communication from individuals with severe disabilities. Training efforts must extend to the daily communication partners and must include friends, family members, support staff, and others. Developing Communicative Interactions (DCI), a data-based staff training program that supports the development of a prescribed set of interaction skills by interacting communication partners is reviewed. The merits of staff training efforts that are tailored to the specific needs of the individual being supported are also considered, as well as new online staff training options. The authors call for additional research to specifically document the effects of training communication partners and the development of new training materials.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Arthur, M., & Butterfield, N. (1993). Teacher reports about student communication: Integrating form and function. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 18, 235–252.
3.
Baumgart, D., Johnson, J., & Helmstetter, E. (1990). Augmentative and alternative communication systems for persons with moderate and severe disabilities. Baltimore: Brookes.
4.
Blindert, H. D. (1975). Interactions between residents and staff: A qualitative investigation of an institutional setting for retarded children. Mental Retardation, 13, 38–40.
5.
Bryen, D. N., & McGinley, V. (1991). Sign language input to community residents with mental retardation. Education and Training in Mental Retardation, 26, 207–213.
6.
Burg, M. M., Reid, D. H., & Lattimore, J. (1979). Use of self-recording and supervision program to change institutional staff behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 12, 363–375.
7.
Calculator, S. N. (1988). Teaching functional communication skills to adults with mental retardation. In S. Calculator & J. Bedrosian (Eds.), Communication assessment and intervention for adults with mental retardation (pp. 309–338). San Diego: College-Hill.
8.
Chapman, R. S. (1989, November). Child talk: Assumptions of a developmental model of language production. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, St. Louis, MO.
9.
Cirrin, F.M., & Rowland, C.M. (1985). Communicative assessment of nonverbal youths with severe/profound mental retardation. Mental Retardation, 23, 52–62.
10.
Drasgow, E., & Halle, J. W. (1995). Teaching social communication to young children with severe disabilities. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 15, 164–186.
11.
Elder, P., & Goosens, C. (1994). Engineering training environments for interactive augmentative communication: Strategies for adolescents and adults who are moderately/severely developmentally delayed. Birmingham, AL: Southeast Augmentative Communication Conference Publications.
12.
Ferguson, D. L. (1994). Is communication really the point? Some thoughts on intervention and membership. Mental Retardation, 32, 7–18.
13.
Golden, J., & Reese, M. (1996). Focus on communication: Improving interaction between staff and residents who have severe or profound mental retardation. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 17, 363–382.
14.
Grossman, H. J. (Ed.). (1983). Classification in mental retardation. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation.
15.
Hile, M. G., & Walbran, B. B. (1991). Observing staff-resident interactions: What staff do, what residents receive. Mental Retardation, 29, 35–41.
16.
Houghton, J., Bronicki, G. J. B., & Guess, D. (1987). Opportunities to express preferences and make choices among students with severe disabilities in classroom settings. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 12, 18–27.
17.
Kaczmarek, L. A. (1990). Teaching spontaneous language to individuals with severe handicaps: A matrix model. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 15, 160–169.
18.
Kuder, J., & Bryen, D. (1993). Conversational topics of staff members and individuals with mental retardation. Mental Retardation, 31, 148–153.
19.
Labato, D., Barrera, R., & Feldman, R. (1981). Sensorimotor functioning and the prelinguistic communication of severely and profoundly retarded individuals. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 85, 489–496.
20.
Landesman-Dwyer, S., Sackett, G. P., & Kleinman, J. S. (1980). Relationship of size to resident and staff behavior in small community residences. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 85, 6–17.
21.
Lipsitt, L. (1966). Learning processes of human newborns. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 12, 45–71.
22.
MacDonald, J. D. (1985). Language through conversation: A model for intervention with language delayed persons. In S. F. Warren & A. K. Rogers-Warren (Eds.), Teaching functional language (pp. 89–122). Baltimore: University Park Press.
23.
McLean, J. E., McLean, L. K. S., Brady, N. C., & Etter, R. (1991). Communication profiles of two types of gesture using nonverbal persons with severe to profound mental retardation. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 294–308.
24.
McLean, J. E., Sack, S., McLean, L., O'Connor, A., & Simmons, S. (1990). Developing communicative interactions. Parsons: University of Kansas.
25.
McLean, J. E., & Snyder-McLean, L. (1987). Form and function of communicative behaviour among persons with severe developmental disabilities. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 13, 83–98.
26.
McLean, J. E., & Snyder-McLean, L. (1991). Communicative intent and its realizations among persons with severe intellectual deficits. In N. Krasnegor, D. Rumbaugh, R. Schiefelbusch, & M. Studdert-Kennedy (Eds.), Biological and behavioral determinants of language development (pp. 481–508). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
27.
McLean, L. K., Brady, N. C., & McLean, J. E. (1996). Reported communication abilities of individuals with severe mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 100, 580–591.
28.
McLean, L. K., & McLean, J. E. (1993). Communication intervention for adults with severe mental retardation. Topics in Language Disorders, 13, 47–60.
29.
Moerk, E. L. (1976). Processes of language teaching and training in the interactions of mother-child dyads. Child Development, 17, 1064–1078.
30.
National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities. (1992). Guidelines for meeting the communication needs of persons with severe disabilities, Asha, 34 (Suppl. 7), 1–8.
31.
Nelson, R. H. (1973). Evaluation of a team approach. Psychological Reports, 32, 263–266.
32.
Ogletree, B. T., Wetherby, A. M., & Westling, D. L. (1992). Profile of the prelinguistic intentional communicative behaviors of children with profound mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 97, 186–196.
33.
Owings, N., & Guyette, T. (1982). Communication behavior assessment and treatment with adults: An approach. In N. Lass (Ed.), Speech and language: Advances in basic research and practice (Vol. 7, pp. 185–216). New York: Academic Press.
34.
Palsha, S., Bailey, D., Vandiviere, P., & Munn, D. (1990). A study of employee stability and turnover in home-based early intervention. Journal of Early Intervention, 14, 342–351.
35.
Prior, M., Minnes, P., Coyne, T., Golding, B., Hendy, J., & McGillivray, J. (1979). Verbal interactions between staff and residents in an institution for the young mentally retarded. Mental Retardation, 17, 65–70.
36.
Reid, D. H., Parsons, M. B., Green, C. W., & Schepis, M. M. (1991). Evaluation of components of residential treatment by Medicaid to ICF-MR surveys: A validity assessment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 29, 293–304.
37.
Reuter, J., Archer, F., Dunn, V., & White, C. (1980). Social milieu of a residential treatment center for severely or profoundly handicapped young children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 90, 388–394.
38.
Romski, M. A., Sevcik, R. A., Reumann, R., & Pate, J. L. (1989). Youngsters with moderate or severe mental retardation and severe spoken language impairments I: Extant communicative patterns. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 366–373.
39.
Sack, S. (1986). The effect of staff training on communication opportunities for severely retarded individuals. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Kansas, Lawrence.
40.
Sack, S. (1988). Using structured communication events to increase teacher provided communication opportunities for severely retarded individuals. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas, Lawrence.
41.
Sack, S., McLean, L., McLean, J., & Spradlin, J. (1992). Effects of increased opportunities within scripted activities on communication rates of individuals with severe retardation. Behavioral Residential Treatment, 7, 235–257.
42.
Siegel-Causey, E., & Wetherby, A. (1993). Nonsymbolic communication. In M. E. Snell (Ed.), Instruction of students with severe disabilities (4th ed., pp. 290–318). New York: Merrill.
43.
Snyder-McLean, L. K., & McLean, J. E. (1978). Verbal information gathering strategies: The child's use of language to acquire language. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 43, 306–325.
44.
Spell, J. J., Crais, E., Perrotta, G., & Miller, P. (1993). A reconsideration of inservice training: A report based on work of the Personnel Development Committee of the North Carolina Interagency Coordinating Council. Raleigh: North Carolina Interagency Coordinating Council for Children Ages Birth to Five with Disabilities and Their Families.
45.
St. Peter, S. M., Ayres, B., Meyer, L., & Park-Lee, S. (1989). Social skills. In A. Ford, R. Schnorr, L. Meyer, L. Davern, J. Black, & P. Dempsey (Eds.), The Syracuse community-referenced curriculum guide for students with moderate and severe disabilities (pp. 171–188). Baltimore: Brookes.
46.
Veit, S. W., Allen, G. J., & Chinsky, J. M. (1976). Interpersonal interactions between institutionalized retarded children and their attendants. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 80, 535–542.
47.
Wehrabian, A. (1970). Measures of vocabulary and grammatical skills for children up to age six. Developmental Psychology, 2, 439–446.
