Jan L Bedrosian

• Western Michigan University

Previous research identified an attitudinal hierarchy of conversational tradeoff choices among public service providers involving utterance-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems in a bookstore context. The purpose of the current research was to determine if there was a hierarchy of choices in three additional settings (i.e....

Utterance-based AAC systems hold the promise of faster/easier communication. Over the past 10 years, we have conducted a number of investigations into the kinds of pragmatic choices that a user of such a system will have to make and the effects of these choices on public attitudes and conversational behaviors. In this paper, we discuss some of the...

Utterance-based AAC systems have the poten-tial to significantly speed communication rate for someone who relies on a speech generat-ing device for communication. At the same time, such systems pose interesting challenges including anticipating text needs, remember-ing what text is stored, and accessing desired text when needed. Moreover, using suc...

Abstracted from: Justice, L. M., Mashburn, A., Pence, K. L., & Wiggins, A. (2008). Experimental evaluation of a preschool language curriculum: Influence on children's expressive language skills. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 983–1001.Source of funding: U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the pragmatic issue of when to use pre-constructed utterances by discussing a research project investigating messages that fail to meet either conventional standards of contextual appropriateness or timing. The use of pragmatic theory to systematically examine pre-constructed messages will be discussed, along...

This paper explores three questions regarding the development of language in young children with severe speech impairments who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The first question relates to how the process of language learning through augmented modes unfolds. In attempting to address this question, two issues are discussed:...

This article discusses components of the AAC Acceptance Model, a theoretical framework for understanding the factors involved in the acceptance of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) by adults with acquired communication disorders. To clarify the AAC Acceptance Model, a case study is provided of an individual with acquired aphasia and...

At the 1994 ISAAC conference in Maastricht, I attended an interesting session concerning the language and literacy characteristics of children with severe speech impairments who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). When it was time for questions from the audience, Pat Mirenda, in her inimitable style, arose from her chair and s...

This study examined the effects of using messages with conversational rule violations on attitudes toward people who used utterance-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems in transactional interactions. Specifically, the ratings were compared across messages with relevance, informativeness, and brevity violations, when latenc...

This study is the third in a series of studies that have concentrated on utterance-based systems--which allow the relatively quick selection of full sentences--and investigated trade-offs faced by users of such systems when there is a pragmatic mismatch between the prestored sentence and the current discourse context. While the previous studies foc...

This report is the second in a series of investigations designed to develop a working model identifying the effects of trade-offs between selected conversational maxims on public attitudes toward augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system users and their communication. In the current study, tradeoffs between the informativeness of a pr...

This article describes an intervention study designed to enhance the skills needed in the planning and writing of stories by an adolescent student with autism working with a typically speaking peer as a partner. Also described is the decision-making process used with respect to several evidence-based research issues. The methods employed appear pro...

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This report is the first in a series of investigations designed to test a theory identifying the effects of conversational trade-offs between selected maxims on public attitudes toward augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system users and their communication. In the current study, the trade-offs between the relevance of a prestored mess...

this paper. Address reprint requests to: D. Jeffery Higginbotham, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, 109 Park Hall, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA

This paper addresses several methodological issues in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) efficacy research pertaining to interactive storybook reading in young children with severe speech impairments. Three recent studies attempting to systematically examine the effects of intervention on facilitating the linguistic participation of t...

The effects of aided message length (single-word vs. phrase-generated messages) and partner feedback (presence vs. absence of expanded message repetitions) on perceptions of the communicative competence of an adult augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system user were examined. Subjects consisted of 12 nonambulatory adults with severe s...

Nondisabled subjects have been used in numerous areas of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) research. The justification for using these subjects has been based largely upon issues related to cost, convenience, difficulties in using persons who are communicatively impaired, and ethical considerations. The findings from these areas are...

This study examined the effects of aided message length, partner reauditorization, and observer background experience on ratings of social aspects of the communicative competence of an adult augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system user. Two groups of subjects participated: adults with minimal exposure to nonspeaking individuals and...

Recently, the use of a model of normal language acquisition has been questioned in terms of its application to the study of language acquisition in children with little or no functional speech. These children, particularly those with severe motoric challenges, may exhibit atypical patterns in their language development. The need to examine other de...

The effects of speech output type, aided message length, and partner reauditorization on naive observers’ perceptions of the communicative competence of an adult augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system user were examined. Subjects consisted of 48 naive adults with minimal exposure to nonspeaking persons. Eight scripted videotaped co...

The effects of aided message length, partner reauditorization, and observer background on perceptions of the communicative competence of an adult augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system user were examined. Two groups of subjects participated: naive adults with minimal exposure to nonspeaking persons, and speech-language pathologists...

The communicative performance of 4 preoperational-level adolescents, using limited speech, gestures, and communication board techniques, was examined in a two-part investigation. In Part 1, each subject participated in an academic interaction with a teacher in a therapy room. Data were transcribed and coded for communication mode, function, and rol...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of different play situations on the topic maintenance performance of 4- to 5-year-old children. The conversations of 12 dyads, 6 female and 6 male, were examined in three counterbalanced videotaped play situations: Legos, Fisher-Price miniature hospital, and hospital props. Speaking turns were...

Conversational turn-taking violations and corresponding repair mechanisms in mother-child interaction were examined. Thirty mother-child dyads, with children ranging in age from 2:10 (years:months) to 6:3, were videotaped in a 10-min free play situation. The interactions were analyzed for several aspects of overlaps (i.e., simultaneous talking), in...

The effects of a pragmatic treatment program on the topic performance of a 5-year-old child were examined. Cognitive and language comprehension levels of development were normal, with a delay in language production. Treatment goals involved an increase in the frequency of memory- and future-related topic initiations. A multiple baseline design acro...

This study examined topic discourse skills in 30 pre-operational level children interacting with their mothers in a free play situation. For each interaction, topic initiations/shadings were analysed for here-and-now, fantasy, and displacement topics. All turns (initiations, shadings and maintenance) involving these topic categories were also coded...

This study represents an attempt to empirically support clinical intuition regarding the effects of physical context variables on pragmatic performance. Specifically, the effects of different play materials on the topic performance of 24 4- to 5-year-old children were examined. Children were divided into 12 dyads, 6 male and 6 female, and videotape...

Discourse participation and topic performance in mother-child interaction were examined. Thirty mother-child dyads, with children ranging in age from 2:10 to 6:3 (years:months), were videotaped in a 10-min free play situation. The interactions were analyzed using several measures of conversational participation and topic including discourse types,...

A sociolinguistic analysis of the communicative performances and social interactions of four mentally retarded adults was conducted. Role relationships were examined along dimensions of dominance-submission and control in various conversational settings. Audiotape recordings were made of each adult's conversation while engaged in discourse with his...