An estimated 2 million Americans have significant communication disabilities and require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). - -J.C.C. Light & J. Kent-Walsh (2003)

This issue of TLD speaks to and for AAC to assist individuals with severe communication impairments in the cause of helping those who wish to communicate not only by spoken language, but also through reading and writing. The focus of the issue is on developing literacy skills. The coeditors of the issue are Bedrosian and Koppenhaver, who have been engaged, as have their authors, for years in research and practice with this population. They have now turned their efforts to conduct evidenced-based research. As readers undoubtedly know, there are problems associated with this approach, although readers will undoubtedly agree with the issue coeditors that the specificity of the interactions and interventions conducted by the authors and their teams permit experienced clinicians to reap a wealth of information and guidance, and also serves the less experienced to delve into the intricacies of planning on focused outcomes.

For a view from a collaborative group (i.e., rehabilitation), see "Topics in stroke rehabilitation, evidence-based review: Part 1 (Teasell, 2003a, b). Closer to home for readers who belong to Special Interest Division 1, Language and Learning and Education, or Division 12, Augmentative and Alternative Communication of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) are 12 or more AAC articles, plus an update from the National Joint Committee on the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities, whose members include Lee K. McLean, Pat Mirenda, Mary Ann Romski, Rose Sevcik, and Diane Paul-Brown. This Committee includes members from ASHA, AAMRD, American Occupational Therapy Association, American Physical Therapy Association, TASH, Council of Exceptional Children: Division for Children's Communication Development, and U.S. Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Since the 1980s, this Committee, albeit with changing membership, has struggled to change the status quo for increased access to communication services and supports rather than the restrictive interpretations of educational or medical necessity.

If the associations mentioned here are unintelligible, practitioners would be assisted by further exploration of the references that accompany this issue, as well as perusal of earlier issues of TLD-for example, the March 1982 TLD, prepared by Issue Editor David Yoder, assisted by Jeffery Higginbotham, entitled "Communication Interaction Strategies for the Severely, Communicatively Impaired." In his Foreword, Yoder points out that "the ability to interact effectively is essential to life" (Yoder, 1982, p. ix). And who are we to contradict that statement? Those who know SLPs and who have attended meetings, conferences, and conventions know that they interact effectively-sometimes a tad vigorously. Yoder concludes by saying, "Above all, a person must be able to verbally or nonverbally communicate an intentional message in such a way that there is an exchange of meaning and a maintenance of conversation" (Yoder, 1982).

Yoder returns with a co-issue editor (D. A. Koppenhaver) a decade or so later (TLD 13:2). That issue reveals a remarkable change in researchers' and practitioners' shift in direction signaled by its title, "Literacy Learning and Persons with Severe Speech Impairments." Yoder established and directed The Carolina Literacy Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Koppenhaver served as Associate Director of the Center at this point in time. They note that they have searched the pre-1980 literature in regard to literacy and severe speech impairments but found that approximately 80% of the research in this field was published between 1982 and 1992. Nevertheless, readers will appreciate the emphasis on classroom studies of children with severe speech impairments and that they and their authors focus on literacy instruction in school-based settings and the role of computers in promoting literacy learning.

TLD returns once more to view the status of literacy among those with severe communication impairments as viewed within the first 3 years of the 21st century with a special emphasis on persons with autism, a disorder that is escalating rapidly throughout the United States. For example, in California, it is the most rapidly growing group in the state's developmental disability system. According to Bob Baldo, Executive Director of the Association of the Regional Center Agencies, the long-term implications are absolutely staggering as a state and as a nation.

Issue editors for TLD 23:4 are Jan Bedrosian and David Koppenhaver; and as one can see by glancing at the chapter authors and their subject matter, these are researcher clinicians who have been deeply involved both with AAC research and autism research. These two strands are tied together with the literacy strands of research flowing from education, psychology, reading, and spelling, complemented by years of the authors' backgrounds and experience in AAC. Bedrosian and Koppenhaver in their Foreword note the importance of evidenced-based research and recognize the preliminary aspects of the work in some instances. However, they also submit that this issue provides an opportunity to present and to build upon previous work and the importance of the guidance provided to researchers and practitioners alike through presentation of these studies through a carefully drawn picture by the authors using available small N studies targeting a range of literacy skills.

REFERENCES