This study analyzes the core vocabulary used by typically developing school-aged English-speaking children in the United States while participating in a variety of school activities. The language of typically developing children, some of whom spoke English as a second language was recorded, transcribed and analyzed to identify the most frequently used words across samples. An inventory of oral core vocabulary of typically developing school-aged children resulted from this analysis. This inventory can be used as a source list for vocabulary selection for school-aged children with AAC needs. Implications for vocabulary selection are discussed.

Collaboration among health care providers is intended to dissolve boundaries between the sectors of health care systems. The implementation of adequate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) care of people without natural speech depends highly on collaboration among multiple stakeholders such as speech and language pathologists, teachers, or physicians. This paper examines existing barriers to and facilitators of collaboration from a stakeholder perspective. Five heterogeneous focus group interviews were conducted with N= 32 stakeholders including speech and language pathologists, AAC consultants, teachers, employees of sheltered workshops, parents, and relatives of AAC users, and other educational professionals (e.g., employees of homes for persons with disabilities) at three AAC counseling centers in Germany. Interview data were analyzed by structured qualitative content analysis. The results show very different experiences of collaboration in AAC care. Factors were identified that can have both positive and negative effects on the collaboration between all stakeholders (e.g., openness toward AAC, knowledge about AAC, communication between stakeholders). In addition, stakeholderspecific influencing factors, such as working conditions or commitment to AAC implementation, were identified. The results also reveal that these factors may have an impact on the quality of AAC care. Overall, the results indicate that good collaboration can contribute to better AAC care and that adequate conditions such as personnel, and time-related resources, or financial conditions need to be established to facilitate collaboration.

IntroductionThe current practice of service delivery in Germany for people with complex communication needs (CCN) who are in need of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is characterised by diverse problems, including a lack of clarity in the responsibilities of the service providers involved. To address these issues a new service delivery model has been put in place, implemented in three AAC counselling centres for patients with a particular health insurance across Germany. The implementation of a new service delivery model aims to improve individualised service delivery. The model goes beyond standard care by adding case management, counselling, AAC training and, if needed, AAC therapy. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this complex intervention.Methods and analysisIn consideration of the complexity of the new service delivery model, formative and summative evaluation will be conducted. The formative evaluation will provide data based on qualitative and quantitative assessments of the competences and perspectives of all involved stakeholders, including a proxy measurement of persons with CCN. The summative evaluation will include a controlled study design as the new service delivery model will be compared against the service delivery in an existing contract and against data gathered from caregivers of AAC users provided with standard care. With the exception of the individual interviews the data will be collected from proxies—that is, informal and formal caregivers.Ethics and disseminationData collection, storage and evaluation meet the currently valid data protection regulations. Consultation by the responsible data protection officer of the Oldenburg Medical School and a positive vote from its Ethics Committee were obtained prior to the start of the study. Dissemination strategies include the presentation of the obtained data and results in the form of publications and at conferences.Trial registration numberDRKS00013628.

Das Standardkompendium Die Pädagogik für Menschen mit Beeinträchtigungen der körperlichen und motorischen Entwicklung befindet sich angesichts der Inklusion im schulischen und außerschulischen Kontext in einem umfassenden Veränderungsprozess. Ziel aller pädagogisch-therapeutischen Unterstützung ist ein (weitgehend) selbstbestimmtes Leben in sozialer Interaktion und Teilhabe. Dieses Kompendium verpflichtet sich diesen Ansprüchen. Die Leser werden eingeführt in den Gesamtkomplex: Inklusion von Menschen mit Körperbehinderung, Personengruppe, Behinderungsformen, Entwicklungsbedingungen, pädagogische Intervention und neue Medien, historische Entwicklungen, Zusammenarbeit mit Eltern, Professionalisierung von Pädagogen sowie theoretische Grundpositionen auf der Basis eines konstruktivistisch fundierten Erziehungs- und Bildungsbegriffs.

ObjectiveTo examine interrelations between care-related burden on informal caregivers and their proxy assessments of outcomes in people without natural speech.DesignA cross-sectional survey.SettingData were collected in January 2019 from a postal survey of informal caregivers of people without natural speech who are insured by a large regional health insurance company in the German federal state of Lower Saxony.Participantsn=714 informal caregivers of people without natural speech of all ages and with various underlying disabilities were identified and contacted via the health insurance company. Data from n=165 informal caregivers (26.4%) were obtained.Main outcome measuresCaregiver burden (self-reported, Burden Scale for Family Caregivers), pragmatic communication skills of people without natural speech (proxy report, self-developed), health-related quality of life of people without natural speech (proxy report, DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Measure - DCGM-12) and functioning of people without natural speech (proxy report, WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0).ResultsThe analyses revealed significant associations between caregiver burden on the one hand and both proxy-reported health-related quality of life (b=−0.422; p≤0.001) and functioning (b=0.521; p≤0.001) on the other. Adding caregiver burden to the regression model leads to a substantial increase in explained variance in functioning (R² Model 1=0.349; R² Model 2=0.575) as well as in health-related quality of life (R² Model 1=0.292; R² Model 2=0.460).ConclusionsCaregiver burden should be considered an important determinant when informal caregivers report outcomes on behalf of people without natural speech. Longitudinal studies are recommended to better understand the burdens experienced by caregivers when supporting people without natural speech.Trial registration numberDRKS00013628.