Use of manual signs by developmentally disordered speech-deficient children in delayed auditory-to-picture matching-to-sample

Use of information-seeking strategies for developing systematic reviews and engaging in evidence-based practice: the application of traditional and comprehensive Pearl Growing. A review

BACKGROUND

Efficient library searches for research evidence are critical to practitioners who wish to engage in evidence-based practice (EBP) as well as researchers who seek to develop systematic reviews.

AIMS

This review will propose the benefits of the search technique 'Pearl Growing' ('Traditional Pearl Growing') as well as an adaptation of this technique ('Comprehensive Pearl Growing'), until now ignored by the literature on EBP and systematic reviews, to aid in the retrieval of research evidence. These search techniques are illustrated with examples from the field of augmentative and alternative communication.

MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS

Traditional Pearl Growing is proposed as an important addition to the arsenal of EBP search strategies for practitioners. The literature on Traditional Pearl Growing is extended in that EBP presents a newly identified purpose for this technique and the benefits in identifying appropriate quality filter goes beyond its previously exclusive focus on keywords. Comprehensive Pearl Growing is projected as a new strategy for researchers searching for studies to be included in systematic reviews. Not only does it provide data-based guidance in selecting effective keywords and quality filters, but also it provides appropriate databases.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the techniques Traditional Pearl Growing and Comprehensive Pearl Growing are believed to be useful for locating research evidence in any field, it may be particularly important for interdisciplinary topics where the use of effective controlled vocabulary plays a greater role in bringing together evidence that may be scattered across databases.

The impact of augmentative and alternative communication intervention on the speech production of individuals with developmental disabilities: a research review

PURPOSE

This article presents the results of a meta-analysis to determine the effect of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) on the speech production of individuals with developmental disabilities.

METHOD

A comprehensive search of the literature published between 1975 and 2003, which included data on speech production before, during, and after AAC intervention, was conducted using a combination of electronic and hand searches.

RESULTS

The review identified 23 studies, involving 67 individuals. Seventeen of these studies did not establish experimental control, thereby limiting the certainty of evidence about speech outcomes. The remaining 6 studies, involving 27 cases, had sufficient methodological rigor for the "best evidence analysis" (cf. >R. E. Slavin, 1986). Most of the participants (aged 2-60 years) had mental retardation or autism; the AAC interventions involved instruction in manual signs or nonelectronic aided systems. None of the 27 cases demonstrated decreases in speech production as a result of AAC intervention, 11% showed no change, and the majority (89%) demonstrated gains in speech. For the most part, the gains observed were modest, but these data may underestimate the effect of AAC intervention on speech production because there were ceiling effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Future research is needed to better delineate the relationship between AAC intervention and speech production across a wider range of participants and AAC interventions.

Naming, the formation of stimulus classes, and applied behavior analysis

The methods used in Sidman's original studies on equivalence classes provide a framework for analyzing functional verbal behavior. Sidman and others have shown how teaching receptive, name-referent matching may produce rudimentary oral reading and word comprehension skills. Eikeseth and Smith (1992) have extended these findings by showing that children with autism may acquire equivalence classes after learning to supply a common oral name to each stimulus in a potential class. A stimulus class analysis suggests ways to examine (a) the problem of programming generalization from teaching situations to other environments, (b) the expansion of the repertoires that occur in those settings, and (c) the use of naming to facilitate these forms of generalization. Such research will help to clarify and extend Horne and Lowe's recent (1996) account of the role of verbal behavior in the formation of stimulus classes.