Welcome to the official website for the 2024 TASH Conference!
Each year, the TASH Conference brings together our constituents to share resources and success stories, learn about field-driven best practices, and network within a community engaged in shared values. The Conference is attended by passionate leaders, experts, and advocates from every corner of the disability community. Conference attendees are influential in their fields and communities, and play an important role in the provision of services and supports for individuals and organizations around the world; and include professors and researchers from leading institutions; those involved in local, state, and federal governments and public policy; special and general educators, and school administrators; self-advocates, adult service providers; students, family members, and many others. This year’s conference theme is Celebrate Together: Let the Good Times Roll!
Click on the "Registration and More" tab for additional information about our Conference location, registration, reserving a guest room, sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities, and more! The full Conference schedule is now available for viewing. Registered attendees will receive an invitation to log in and create a personalized schedule.
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For children, social interaction plays a critical role in overall social, emotional, and cognitive development, however, not every child has equal opportunity to engage socially with their peers. Specifically, children with disabilities and complex communication needs (CCN) have limited meaningful opportunities to interact with their peers in inclusive educational spaces. To better support young children with CCN in early childhood educational settings, it is imperative to understand what opportunities exist naturally for social interaction and communication. This observational study investigates these naturally occurring communication opportunities for students with disabilities and CCN as well as other contextual factors that may impact social communication in inclusive classroom settings.
This presentation discusses a single-case design study using NDBIs as a peer-mediated intervention for preschool aged children with autism and developmental disabilities. Data will be collected in Fall 2024. This study will be conducted in inclusive special education classrooms, which are currently the standard practice for providing special education services for children with a wide variety of special learning needs. Preschool aged peers will be trained and coached in strategies, that align with the fidelity markers of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) for engaging with children with disabilities during center time. This study also aims to examine the effects intervention on the communication, play, and social skills for children with disabilities. This presentation will provide information to assist in understanding the impact of peer-mediated NDBIs on key skills for children with disabilities. Recommendations and suggestions will be provided.
Friday December 6, 2024 5:45pm - 7:15pm CST
3RD Floor - Storyville HallHyatt Regency, 601 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70113
Communication skills are essential to everyday life to express our thoughts, needs, feelings, and to connect with others. Thus, access to communication should be available to all. Yet, due to complex communication needs, many children with significant cognitive disabilities do not have access to reliable communication modes. For these presymbolic communicators, we must take on creative approaches to improve access to communication. I used qualitative interviews to explore how 10 educators of young children with significant cognitive disabilities think about supporting complex communication needs. Findings suggest that, in addition to extensive support needs, factors such as, quality of relationships, school environments, and perceptions of disability affect communication outcomes. Findings also highlight strengths in educators’ commitment to their students but identify a discord between educators’ expectations and beliefs vs. actual feasibility due to school environment and resources.
