JCPSLP Vol 18 no 2 2016

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104 JCPSLP Volume 18, Number 2 2016 Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology
wonderful and never has to ask her father to purchase
personal products for her any more. Sometimes the simple
things in life really are the best!
Author statement
Janice is employed by Scope which publishes some
resources mentioned in this Top 10. She has no commercial
interest in any of the resources presented or businesses
mentioned.
services/Communication-and-Assistive-Technology/
electronic-communication-devices-scheme
10+1 Community request cards
I just had to list an “eleven” because request cards are my
favourite! It is empowering for people to be able to
independently interact with the wider community and have
them interact back directly! Anyone can use them and we
even took some on our family trip to Japan. Such a simple
concept, but they have so many uses. I have one lady that I
support who has a set with such diverse comments as “I
am just browsing. I will let you know if I require some help”
and “Does that product come with a warranty?” right down
to “Can I get a $20.00 top up on my Vodaphone please?”
She told me that when she goes into Priceline, she has staff
racing all over the place finding things for her. She feels
Correspondence to:
Janice Buckland, speech pathologist
Scope Shannon Park, Victoria
phone: 03 5221 5444
email:
Radford, J., Bosanquet, P., Webster, R., & Blatchford, P.
(2015). Scaffolding learning for independence:
Clarifying teacher and teaching assistant roles for
children with special education needs. Learning and
Instruction, 36(1), 1–10.
Bonnie Kang
Increasing numbers of teacher assistants (TAs) working with
children with special educational needs (SEN) bring new
challenges and opportunities. This article uses a
sociocultural approach to propose an effective scaffolding
model for TA interaction during instruction for children with
SEN. Conversational analysis of audio and video recordings
taken from three UK studies of TA interactions with children
with SEN during maths and literacy classes in mainstream
schools revealed three effective scaffolding roles: (1) the
repair role, in which TAs prompted and cued students to
find solutions to breakdowns when they occurred, without
providing the direct answer (e.g., a verbal cue to find a
word); (2) the support role in which TAs used strategies
(e.g., cuing, prompting, giving instructions) to gain and
maintain students’ interest during learning activities; and (3)
the heuristic role in which TAs modelled and encouraged
students to use learning strategies to solve problems
independently. The authors identify strategies for achieving
best learning outcomes for children with SEN including
ensuring teacher and TA discussion and planning, ongoing
TA scaffolding training, and reviewing whether TA
educational qualifications are consistent with TA roles and
expectations. The authors also recommend that future
research examine the impact of peer scaffolding on learning
and learner contribution during scaffolding. This is an
insightful article that would interest speech pathologists
working in school settings.
Plesa Skwerer, D., Jordan, S. E., Brukilacchio, B. H., &
Tager-Flusberg, H. (2015). Comparing methods for
assessing receptive language skills in minimally
verbal children and adolescents with autism
spectrum disorders. Autism. Advance online publication.
doi:10.1177/1362361315600146
Amelia Edwards
Assessing the receptive language of minimally verbal children
with autism spectrum disorder is both a challenge for clinicians
and an area that has not been widely explored within existing
literature. This study compared and contrasted several
different assessment approaches, including standardised
direct assessment of receptive language, caregiver reporting,
eye-tracking assessment, and a computerised touch-screen
assessment. Although all of the participants within the
study were considered “minimally verbal”, the results of the
study indicated that there was significant variation across the
participants in terms of receptive language skills. There was
also significant heterogeneity in performance across the
various assessment methods, with the authors highlighting
that there was not a clear assessment approach that
presented clear advantages given the variability of
performance across participants. While the computerised
tasks (touch-screen and eye-tracking assessments) are still
considered experimental, and further research is required,
this study highlights the exciting possibility of combining
computerised assessment of receptive language with more
traditional assessment measures (e.g., standardised formal
assessment and caregiver report). Ultimately, if
computerised tasks can be implemented into assessment
practices in the future, they may provide clinicians with a
more comprehensive understanding of the receptive
language skills of individuals on the autism spectrum.
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