Augmentative and alternative communication and behavior analysis: A productive partnership?

May I begin by expressing my sincere thanks to Phonic Ear for their very generous support and to Lyle Lloyd and the other members of the AAC Editorial Board who selected me for this award. I am truly grateful to all concerned. Phone calls late at night have always bothered me. If it can’t wait until morning, it’s probably bad news. I have Lyle Lloyd to thank for helping me to re-evaluate a lifelong anxiety. His call to tell me that I had been honored with the opportunity to present this lecture certainly arrived late at night; but he was making it in the Indiana afternoon, several time zones back across the Atlantic, and it was very good news indeed. I basked in the glow of it: a prestigious award, presented by a distinguished group of people for whom I have the greatest respect, and in such a wonderful place. I thought about leaving England in November — doing rather more than just “California dreaming on such a winter’s day.” Lyle didn’t need to do any persuading. I don’t know what previous Distinguished Lecturers have done after they’ve put the phone down, but I started to worry. With scarcely a thought, I had committed myself to a title: Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Behavior Analysis: A Productive Partnership? Now I had to figure out what precisely I meant by it, and suddenly November started to seem very close. This was in May, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Come to think of it, perhaps late night calls still do bother me.