Scope - Therapy, Training, Consultancy - Communication Resource Centre

Research - August 2004 Update

Determining the construct validity of the Triple C - Checklist of Communicative Competence.
Karen Bloomberg, Denise West and Teresa Iacono have recently completed analysis of checklists completed for 170 adults with intellectual disability. A prospective study into how the Triple C compares to data obtained from direct observation is in the planning stage.

Changes in attitudes towards and willingness to work with people with complex communication needs: Potential impact of a course in Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
Hilary Johnson and Karen Bloomberg are investigating how comfortable undergraduate speech pathology students are in interacting with people with disabilities, and whether this level of comfort changes following their a course in AAC. Of particular interest is whether their level of comfort relates to their plans to work in the disability field. The project also involves determining how many recent speech pathology graduates are working in disability and how well they feel their undergraduate training prepared them.

Measuring the outcomes of speech pathology intervention for adults with developmental disability and complex communication needs.
This project is being partially funded by a Speech Pathology Australia Clinician Research Grant awarded to Karen Bloomberg. Karen, Sheridan Forster and Ruth Bryce, with the assistance of Teresa Iacono are investigating the usefulness of a new assessment tool -- Social Networks: A Communication Inventory for Individuals with Complex Communication Needs and their Communication Partners - in planning and evaluating intervention.

Assessment of communication skills in preschool children with physical and multiple disabilities.
This project is also being funded by a Speech Pathology Australia Clinician Research Grant awarded to Gayle Porter, and is a collaboration between the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre and the Communication Research Centre. Gayle and Teresa Iacono will utilise data obtained using structured and unstructured sampling procedures to develop a coding scheme for levels and modes of communication in children with multiple disabilities, and cues that scaffold their communication.

Speech Pathology Recruitment and Retention in Victoria
This is a collaborative project between the Communication Resource Centre, Monash University and Charles Sturt University - LaTrobe. The aim of this study is to address the issues of recruitment and retention of speech pathologists within Victoria into positions across the various employment sectors. Of particular interest to the Communication Resource Centre is recruitment into positions involving working with people with disability.

For further details contact Dr. Teresa Iacono
Tel: (03) 9843 2018
Email: tiacono.crc@scopevic.org.au