Edited by Janice C. Light, Ph.D., David R. Beukelman, Ph.D., & Joe Reichle, Ph.D.

Relevant for children and adults at all stages of communication development, this upper-level text is a must-have for SLPs, educators, and rehabilitation professionals who work with AAC users. The book presents current research and theory and guides readers through four skill areas important to the development of communicative competence:

• Linguistic competence. Learn about issues such as the impact of AAC on an individual’s natural speech production, the development and use of picture-based communication systems, and the relationship between spoken language and the “language” of AAC systems.
  
  
• Operational competence. Consider issues related to technical operation of AAC systems, including motor development and control, cognitive factors like awareness and memory, and sensory-perceptual development.
  
  
• Social competence. Explore factors such as the effect of developmental disabilities on social communication, challenges to developing social connections, and the ability to conduct conversations.
  
  
• Strategic competence. Examine operational, linguistic, and social constraints faced by AAC users and learn about adaptive skills that allow users to make the most of what they can do.

Two concluding chapters show readers how to improve the communicative competence of AAC users through effective intervention strategies — and how to ensure that the strategies are working through outcomes measurement. Order this textbook today, and get the in-depth research and theory you need to enhance communicative competence for individuals who use AAC!

I. Definition of Communicative Competence

1. Shattering the Silence: Development of Communicative Competence by Individuals Who Use AAC
   Janice C. Light

II. Linguistic Competence

2. AAC and Natural Speech in Individuals with Developmental Disabilities
   Katherine C. Hustad and Kathy L. Shapley
   
   
3. Toward Linguistic Competence: Language Experiences and Knowledge of Children with Extremely Limited Speech
   Susan Blockberger and Ann Sutton
   
   
4. Representational Competence
   Beth Mineo Mollica
   
   
5. Augmented Input: Enhancing Communication Development
   MaryAnn Romski and Rose A. Sevcik
   
   
6. Asymmetry in Input and Output for Individuals Who Use AAC
   Martine M. Smith and Nicola Clare Grove

III. Operational Competence

7. Supporting Competent Motor Control of AAC Systems
   Jutta Treviranus and Vera Roberts
   
   
8. Cognitive Skills and AAC
   Charity Rowland and Philip D. Schweigert
   
   
9. Visual Issues and Access to AAC
   Tracy M. Kovach and Patricia Bothwell Kenyon

IV. Social Competence

10. Pragmatic Development in Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Who Use AAC
    Teresa A. Iacono
    
    
11. Finding a Place in the “Social Circle of Life”: The Development of Sociorelational Competence by Individuals Who Use AAC
    Janice C. Light, Kara B. Arnold, and Elizabeth A. Clark

V. Strategic Competence

12. “Playing the Game”: Strategic Competence in AAC
    Pat Mirenda and Karen D. Bopp

VI. Interventions to Build Communicative Competence

13. Intervention Strategies for Communication: Using Aided Augmentative Communication Systems
    Joe Reichle, Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker, Nancy C. Brady, and Nancy Terry
    
    
14. Outcomes Measurement in AAC
    Ralf W. Schlosser

Index