Fourth International Symposium
on AAC Evidence-Based Practice:
Preferred Practice Patterns
September 15 - 16, 2006
University of Pittsburgh
Forbes Tower
Forbes Avenue, between Meyran and Atwood
http://www.umc.pitt.edu/tour/tour-320-map.html
(The red building near the bottom.)
Parking is available below the building off Meyran and also
across Meyran.
Agenda
Snoopi Botten is a singer, songwriter,
entertainer, and advocate for people who use AAC. He uses AAC himself.
Gilson Capilouto is a member of the Division of Communication
Disorders faculty at University of Kentucky where she teaches the course
on augmentative and alternative communication and supervises student activity
in this area.
David Chapple is the secretary of the AAC Institute.
He is a computer programmer and is a person with a speech communication
disability who uses AAC assistive technology.
Ellen Cohn is Assistant Dean for Instruction and Associate
Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation
Sciences, with appointments in the School of Pharmacy and the McGowan
Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
Katya Hill is a member of the Communication Science and
Disorders faculty at University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hill conducts research
and development related to AAC performance measurement and evidence-based
practice.
Robin Hurd is the mother of 8 year old twins who use
AAC and powered wheelchairs. She is also the author of Parents'
Corner.
Filip Loncke is immediate past president of ISAAC (International
Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication). He is on the
faculty at the University of Virginia.
Jennifer Lowe is the executive director of S.H.O.U.T.,
a not-for-profit organization that operates the Pittsburgh Employment
Conference for Augmented Communicators (PEC).
Colin Portnuff lives in Portland, Oregon and represents
people with speech impairment on the Advisory Committee to the Oregon
Telecommunications Device Access Program. He uses powered mobility and
speaks via a personal computer.
Barry Romich is an engineer, is a trustee of AAC Institute,
and is chairman and CEO of Prentke Romich Company.
Don Spaeth is a Research Scientist and the Associate
Director of Engineering at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories
(HERL) located in Pittsburgh PA. HERL is the Center of Excellence for
Wheeled Mobility for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
ASHA CEUs will be provided at no cost.*
| AAC Institute is approved by the Continuing
Education Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
(ASHA) to provide continuing education activities in speech-language
pathology and audiology. This program is offered for up to 0.9 CEUs
(Intermediate level; Professional area). ASHA CE Provider approval does
not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical
procedures. |
|
* An annual ASHA CE Registry fee is required to
register ASHA CEUs. ASHA CE Registry fees are paid by the participant directly
to the ASHA National Office. The annual ASHA CE Registry fee allows registration
of an unlimited number of ASHA CEUs for the calendar year. Contact the ASHA
CE staff at 800-498-2071 ext. 4219 for CE Registry fee subscription information.
Session Abstracts
Charge to the Symposium
Colin Portnuff
The Charge to the Symposium is presented by Colin
Portnuff. Mr. Portnuff shares his experience as a literate adult with an acquired
speech disorder due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He talks about receiving
his diagnosis and stepping into the world of people who are viewed as disabilities
first, shares some of his techniques for managing conversations, and discusses
the essential and diverse roles of the speech and language pathologist. With
humor and passion, he challenges us to look past disability, voice and language
to see people -- their emotions, their values and their character -- and to
maintain our intense focus on helping people who cannot speak be heard.
Opening Address –
AAC Evidence-Based Practice (EBP): An International Perspective
Filip Loncke, Ph.D.
University of Virginia
In the past three decades, Augmentative and Alternative
Communication (AAC) has touched on issues such as 1) universal human rights
and development, and 2) public health and educational policies. The adoption
of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
by the World Health Organization provides a place to address these issues globally.
It is important for people involved with AAC to be aware of the universal human
rights of individuals with communication disabilities and how these impacts
decisions they make regarding AAC.
Keynote Address - AAC EBP & Preferred Practice Patterns
(PPP): The Responsibility of Many
Katya Hill, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
University of Pittsburgh
As evidence based practice becomes more and more
important in many settings, identifying significant benchmarks that can be used
to measure success also grows more important. Personal achievement of people
who use AAC depends on all the people who support that individual consistently
basing their interventions on the guiding principles of EBP. Policies that affect
AAC must support those interventions that provide ways to measure the results
of daily practices and quality of life, and result in personal achievement and
participation in every setting. Raising the awareness of these issues and their
implications on practice patterns becomes a shared responsibility of (a) individuals
and their family, (b) clinical practitioners, (c) commercial and industrial
entities, and (d) educational and research organizations.
Panel and Participant Discussion - AAC EBP and PPP
Panel of afternoon speakers & Round Table Leaders for Saturday
Panel members will provide a brief summary of the
topics, perspectives, and ideas from the afternoon presentations as well as
highlight personal perspectives on the round table discussion topics. This session
will provide an opportunity for interactive questions, answers and debate among
participants and speakers regarding the nature of evidence-based practice and
knowledge and skills necessary to implement AAC preferred practice patterns.
SATURDAY 16 September
AM Concurrent Round Table
Discussions
Symposium participants will break into round table discussions of their choice.
Using the round table topic under consideration, the group will identify Strengths
(related to current AAC practice patterns); Weaknesses (current barriers to
preferred practice patterns); Opportunities (for improving practice patterns)
and perceived Threats (to applying principles of evidence-based practice) to
AAC preferred practice patterns. This SWOT analysis will then be shared with
the rest of the symposium participants.
¨ Research Round Table headed by Gilson Capilouto
& Snoopi Botten
¨ Clinical Round Table headed by Ellen Cohn & Jennifer Lowe
¨ Consumers/Families Round Table headed by Robin Hurd & David Chapple
Group Presentations and
Discussion
Symposium participants will come together to share their round table discussions.
An individual from each group will present key points from the discussion. Participants
will have an opportunity for questions and answers from group participants.
Action planning will be developed to advance AAC evidence-based practice. Symposium
participants will receive a compiled summary report of each of the groups.
PM Workshops
Tools and Resources to
Support Clinical Practice
Barry Romich, Jennifer Lowe, Don Spaeth
This hands-on workshop will demonstrate simple
ways to gather data and measure performance of people who use AAC. Participants
will learn about the Single Switch Performance Test (SSPT), COMPASS, the Universal
Language Activity Monitor (U-LAM) and the Performance Report Tool (PeRT). During
the demonstration, a language sample from an individual who relies on AAC will
be collected and analyzed using these automated techniques designed to work
with almost any AAC system, regardless of the manufacturer. Practical ways this
software can make documentation easier will be discussed. A CD with software
and resources will be provided.
Designing evidence-based programs for people
who use AAC: Families and professionals working together to achieve better outcomes.
Robin Hurd & David Chapple
In theory, families, and professionals and the
people who rely on AAC should work as a team to design an intervention plan
that meets individual needs. The reality, however, can be a far different situation.
This workshop will discuss ways families and consumers can become equal partners
in the intervention team and knowledgeable advocates that direct their care
toward evidence-based practice.
AAC Clinical Research: Transitioning traditional treatment protocols
to single subject research designs
Gilson Capilouto, Katya Hill & Snoopi Botten
Single subject design offers professionals a simple
method for evaluating effectiveness of an intervention. Yet, the majority of
practicing SLPs are unaware of how to use this design to measure treatment outcomes.
In this workshop, we will review basic principles of research as applied to
AAC intervention such as informed consent, reliability, validity, independent
and dependent variables, and data analysis. AAC case studies will be used to
illustrate how to implement, analyze, and interpret multi-probe single subject
research design as part of ongoing treatment. Discussion will include the types
of research questions that can be and need to be answered using single subject
designs to provide external evidence for AAC clinical decisions.
