| Abstract: |
A clinical case study is outlined in which the learning of a printed word system of communication appeared to facilitate the development of a dual (signing/printed word) system of communication in a 13-year-old deaf-blind boy with severe intellectual disabilities. The introduction of the printed word reading program, and its subsequent systematic combination with training in Australasian sign, led to a substantially accelerated acquisition of signing skills in this child after he had failed to make progress with signing over a 5-year period. The features of the printed word system of communication, and the instructional technology that can be used to teach it, may endow it with much greater utility as a means of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) than had been previously realized. |
