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Speak Up!  The Official Magazine of the United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC)

                                                            

Publication Frequency: 3 issues a year

Dates of Publications:  April 15, July 15, November 15

 

Due dates for submissions: March 1, June 1, October 1, 2011

 

Type of publication: Electronic ($15.00 charge for written copies for the year)

Publisher: USSAAC

Editor: Pam Kennedy

 

All authors that request submission for papers to Speak Up! must be current USSAAC members.  For membership information, go to www.ussaac.org

 

Focus of publication includes all areas of AAC research, clinical practice, intervention, language, outcomes, articles about (or from) AAC users and/or family members, and  cultural/arts/community type of issues related to the field of AAC. 

 

AAC intervention is the process of enhancing and optimizing daily functional communication across all communicative contexts. This process takes time, as well as hours of work by the augmented communicator and the team of stakeholders providing and supporting the needed intervention and follow-up activities and services. Developing or re-developing functional communication skills involves the use of multi-modal communication strategies, based on each individual. That is, an augmented communicator may learn to communicate using varied approaches including speech, communication boards, signs, gestures and high-tech devices. An important part of an AAC intervention program is to teach the augmented communicator the strategic competence to know when each communication modality or strategy is appropriate. Strategies used with familiar listeners may be very different from strategies needed when communicating in classrooms or with unfamiliar listeners.

AAC intervention goals may include any of the following:

·        Teaching symbol representation skills for objects and pictures

·        Teaching the vocabulary contents of the communication board or device

·        Teaching encoding strategies to navigate a device or to access vocabulary stored with a device 

·        Facilitating language development commensurate with language-comprehension skills  

·        Teaching phonics and phonemic awareness 

·        Facilitating literacy skills  

·        Developing the pragmatic skills needed to ensure effective social communication  

·        Developing the physical skills to consistently and reliably access a communication device through direct selection or an alternative mode of access (e.g., switch

 

 

Review process:

 

All papers submitted to Speak Up are subject to peer review by three reviewers, either Editorial Board members or invited reviewers, who have special expertise in a particular area of AAC.  To ensure objectivity, authors will remain anonymous to reviewers.  The Editor, Pam Kennedy, will have final authority over a paper’s suitability for publication.

 

Manuscript submissions: sent electronically to xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx

 

Page limits: 6-8 typeset pages. 

 

Clients/subjects and photos: Real names or initials shall not be used.  Refers to clients (or yourself if you are writing about you) by number or letter codes--for photos, a letter of consent must accompany all photographs of person in which the possibility of identification exists. 

 

References and citations should be cited in the text by author and year of publication and include in alphabetical list at the end of the article.  Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the author. 

 

Questions about Speak Up can be directed to Alisa Brownlee, USSAAC Office Manager.  Email xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx or phone 215-631-1877