Dr. Michelle Therrien is a professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders. She recently received a grant from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation for her project, Training Preschool Teachers to Support Peer Interaction for Children with Complex Communication Needs.
The outline of the project states:
“Friendships and peer interactions play an important role in development and quality of life for all children. Early experiences with peers establish a foundation for developing friendships throughout life, and positive peer relationships can impact physical and mental health as well as academic and social success. Children with disabilities who have limited speech struggle to meet all of their communication needs, and interventions for these children typically focus on helping a child to communicate their wants and needs, and not on developing social communication skills. Without intervention to support social communication, these children are at risk for social isolation and may struggle to build positive peer relationships. This proposed project would contribute significantly to research in the field of communication science and disorders in three ways. First, it focuses on fostering peer interactions of young children with complex communication needs. Second, the goal of this project is to train teachers to implement the intervention within the preschool classroom, increasing the ecological validity of the intervention, and providing evidence that supports the speech language pathologist’s roles as a trainer and collaborator. Finally, the teacher training and coaching components of this proposed study will be conducted online, which, if effective, means that the intervention, and the benefits of the intervention for children with complex communication needs, could be realized even in rural or geographically isolated areas. Positive results from these two studies will impact service delivery for preschool children with disabilities and complex communication needs, and give teachers, even those in more remote settings, access to the training required to support social interaction for their underserved students.”
Dr. Therrien will receive $10,000 to cover the cost of two undergraduate assistant aids, materials for the project, and participant incentives. The materials include iPads with the GoTalk NOW app. This app will be used for teacher training and intervention implementation. Teacher participants will program the app to support the communication of children with disabilities and their peers. The teachers will be able to keep the iPads after the program to continue using in their classes. Each teacher will also receive a book bundle estimated at $35 per bundle. This study uses a shared picture book activity, so the book bundle will guarantee that each classroom has a set of high-quality picture books.
Dr. Therrien is currently seeking six preschool teachers to participate in this study. The teachers should have children in their classrooms with disabilities that significantly impact their ability to communicate through speech as well as children without communication challenges. Interested teachers can contact Dr. Therrien at mtherrien@fsu.edu or by phone at 850-644-1951. For updates or more information about her work, check out Dr. Therrien’s Lab, the AAC Connect Lab on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AACConnectLab.