Teamwork in Developing Educational Goals and AAC Intervention: Case Study

摘要

When AAC intervention involves modification of partner behaviors, it is sometimes difficult to represent measurable progress on an individual educational plan (IEP) and reach agreement among team members on goals. Goals of modifying partner behaviors occur frequently for children who are using spontaneous or intentional behaviors as primary communication strategies (Yoder & Warren, 1998). Intentional behaviors are acts that a child deliberately initiates toward a person or object/toy, involving at least two communicative tools. Clear intentional conveying of a message to another person, by directing a gesture or vocalization toward that person (Wetherby & Prizant, 1992) tends to occur when the child can incorporate three or more communicative "tools" consistently in communication (e.g. behavior + message + person). The following case study outlines some processes through which team decisions were made in addressing intentional communication for a school-aged boy. This case study highlights some of the following team principles for AAC intervention: 1. Usually working towards positive change in a few mutually agreeable areas is more effective than insisting on one individual's "best" solutions, and can lead to more consensus down the road. 2. The parents and clients are always right in expressing their wishes, and we need to adapt our advice to meet those needs. 3. Even if every team member doesn't agree on a child's current skill capacity, teams can usually agree on a few key skills to improve the child's independent expressive behaviors. 4. Pick your battles - you don't have to prove your point in every area of conflict, and some issues are impossible to prove objectively (e.g. how much a child really understands). Most often, when teams find themselves in a goal conflict, this is really a conflict of communication. 5. Reaching a common team plan usually involves a) identifying the bottom line goal for team members, especially parents, and b) clarifying the connection between the plan and those goals, and c) writing educational plans that measure all types of progress towards meeting the goals.