PART A:

(Keyword: special education)

PART B:
(I am a Communication Disorders Major, but was assigned special education. I will be searching
topics relative to what I’m learning in the CDIS program)

1.
 2. Class: CDIS 4223 - Language Disorders in Children
Teacher: Christine Holyfield

PART C

1. ​Who is author?​ Erin Alexander

2. ​What is the name of the theses/dissertation?​ ​Communication
Disorders Among Persons Experiencing Homelessness
3. ​What is the year of the theses/dissertation?​ 2018
4. ​What institution did the author go to?​ University of Kansas
5. ​What was the purpose of the study?​ The purpose of this exploratory
research study was to describe communication disorders among the
population of persons experiencing homelessness (PEH). PEH are at
increased risk for a variety of health impairments that can result in
communication disorders.
6. ​What was the conclusion of the study?​ Results from this study are
derived from the perspectives of staff members of organizations, who in some
circumstances may not have full knowledge of communication disorders and/or
the health impairments of the individuals they work with. The limited number of
37 respondents did not allow for meaningful analysis into response correlations
related to participant characteristics.
7. ​Why would this particular study be important in your field?​ This study
is important to my field because it addresses how communication disorders
affects future success. In my major we have learned primarily of children with
speech disorders and how it affects their developmental delays, intelligibility,
and performance.
8. ​Pretend that you want to do a similar study to this one. What would
you do different? Why?
If I were to do a similar study, I would first increase the sample size to get very
accurate results. I would analyze not only the prevalence that people
experiencing homelessness suffer a communication disorder but also the
functional impact it has on their daily lives. I would group the percentages of
which speech disorder was most common so that we could put together a
target treatment plan. I would also branch into the resources that were
available for the homeless and funding to help it excel. I would then provide
select individuals with treatment and track their daily success to see how
beneficial getting them help could be.

1. ​ Who is the professor that you have taken a class with? Or a professor
that you are currently taking a class with​? Christine Holyfield
2. ​What year did he/she write their dissertation?​ 2017
3. ​What is the name of the dissertation?​ Effect of an AAC App-Based Video
Training on Peers' Accuracy Identifying Communicative Behaviors in Presymbolic
Middle Schoolers with Multiple Disabilities
4. ​What institution did the professor go to when he/she published their
dissertation?​ The Pennsylvania State University
5. ​Skip to the end of the dissertation. What was the conclusion of the
study? (You can type this word for word.)
All individuals should live in an environment responsive to their communication. All
individuals should live in an environment supportive of their language
development. Unfortunately, some school-aged individuals with multiple disabilities
who communicate through mostly presymbolic means display idiosyncratic
communicative behavior that may not be recognized as communicative or
interpreted correctly by some communication partners. This lack of correct
interpretation eliminates the potential of a response from these communication 70
partners that is supportive of a high quality of life or the development of symbolic
language. When those communication partners are school peers, there may be
consequences for social development as well. This study represented an initial
attempt to address this problem by training peers to interpret the idiosyncratic
communicate behavior of three middle school students with multiple disabilities.
Video, practice, and instructor feedback were used to provide peer participants
with knowledge about the specific communicative behaviors of the students with
multiple disabilities. Results suggest middle school peers can quickly learn to
interpret the behavior of individuals with multiple disabilities. More research is
needed to ensure the increase in communication partner knowledge translates to
an increase in interaction success.