The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe early childhood special education service providers' perceptions of the use of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) in their preschool classrooms as a result of participation in MELD (Multimodal Early Language Development) AAC professional development. MELD is a multicounty project that provides professional development to support service providers to meet the needs of preschool children with complex communication needs. Results indicate, in general, that the service providers felt the professional development met their individual needs to be successful in embedding the use of AAC in each of their preschool special education classrooms. The study extends past research about the components needed in effective early childhood professional development that results in teacher implementation of new instructional strategies to include the use of AAC strategies and adds new information about the context that may be needed. That context includes a positive and supportive relationship between coaches and service providers and a recognition of positive changes in the behavior of children by service providers. Implications for providing professional development and for future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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学前班使用AAC的专业发展结果

这项定性研究的目的是描述早期儿童特殊教育服务提供者对在他们的学前班课堂中使用替代和辅助交流 (AAC) 的看法，因为他们参与了 MELD（多模式早期语言发展）AAC 专业发展。MELD 是一个多县项目，提供专业发展以支持服务提供商满足具有复杂沟通需求的学龄前儿童的需求。结果表明，总的来说，服务提供者认为专业发展满足了他们在每个学前特殊教育课堂中成功使用 AAC 的个人需求。该研究扩展了过去关于有效幼儿专业发展所需组成部分的研究，导致教师实施新的教学策略，包括使用 AAC 策略，并添加有关可能需要的背景的新信息。这种背景包括教练和服务提供者之间的积极和支持关系，以及服务提供者对儿童行为积极变化的认可。讨论了对提供专业发展和未来研究的影响。这种背景包括教练和服务提供者之间的积极和支持关系，以及服务提供者对儿童行为积极变化的认可。讨论了对提供专业发展和未来研究的影响。这种背景包括教练和服务提供者之间的积极和支持关系，以及服务提供者对儿童行为积极变化的认可。讨论了对提供专业发展和未来研究的影响。