Critical issues in the inclusion of students who use augmentative and alternative communication: An educational team perspective

Parents' Perceptions of Communication Patterns and Effectiveness of Use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems by Their Children With Angelman Syndrome

“…Multiple investigators have discussed the importance of involving families in the AAC decision-making process (Bailey, Parette, Stoner, Angell, & Carroll, 2006;Calculator, 2009;Soto, Müller, Hunt, & Goetz, 2001), respecting their values, visions, beliefs, and priorities (Cress, 2004;Goldbart & Marshall, 2004;Starble, Hutchins, Favro, Prelock, & Bitner, 2005). Parents may report feelings that professionals distance themselves from involving them in their children's AAC programs (McNaughton et al, 2008).…”

The Bridge School: Educational Inclusion Outcomes over 15 Years

“…For each participant, anecdotal evidence found in the records was referenced against selected indicators to determine its presence or absence, and then was tallied across participants. Also shown in Table 3, subthemes identified for each selected indicator (Soto et al, 2001) provided examples of the kinds of evidence in the records that could reflect the presence of an indicator. If the evidence reflected these or similar examples under a given key indicator, the data for that indicator were categorized as being present.…”

“…To determine successful educational inclusion in the general education environment following attendance at Bridge School, the researchers selectively referenced key success indicators identified by Soto et al (2001) that were of relevance to this study. As shown in Table 3, these factors related to educational team functioning, communication (AAC device use) and participation.…”

“…Successful transitioning across educational environments requires careful planning and monitoring by educational teams in both the sending and receiving environments (Beukelman & Mirenda, 1998). Educational inclusion of students who use AAC often presents unique challenges for educational teams that relate, in part, to (a) the complexities of assistive technologies required for participation, (b) team members' lack of familiarity with AAC approaches, and (c) the continuous need for collaborative teaming to support active participation (e.g., Soto, Muller, Hunt, & Goetz, 2001;Sturm, 1998). Therefore, in an effort to facilitate successful participation by former students as they return to their respective local schools, Bridge School provides a range of ongoing services and supports to receiving educational teams as needed.…”

“…In a study by Soto et al (2001), for example, focus groups comprised of experienced educational team members identified key indicators of the successful educational inclusion experiences of students who use AAC that made it possible for them to participate in general education settings. In this study, educational team members included parents, general and special educators, paraprofessionals, and speech-language pathologists.…”