Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe early childhood special education service providers' perceptions of the use of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) in their preschool classrooms as a result of participation in MELD (Multimodal Early Language Development) AAC professional development. MELD is a multicounty project that provides professional development to support service providers to meet the needs of preschool children with complex communication needs. Results indicate, in general, that the service providers felt the professional development met their individual needs to be successful in embedding the use of AAC in each of their preschool special education classrooms. The study extends past research about the components needed in effective early childhood professional development that results in teacher implementation of new instructional strategies to include the use of AAC strategies and adds new information about the context that may be needed. That context includes a positive and supportive relationship between coaches and service providers and a recognition of positive changes in the behavior of children by service providers. Implications for providing professional development and for future research are discussed.