Elements of a Theoretical Structure that Will Support Best Practices in Communication Facilitation

Communication programming for individuals with severe disabilities often does not meet the requirements of best practices. One reason for this is that a dominant psycholinguistic model, the Dictionary + Rules model (pronounced “Dictionary plus Rules model”) provides a theoretical base that is inconsistent with best practices. In fact, the model's perspective on language and communication may be sufficiently inadequate and misleading to warrant not using this model as an approach to understanding the fundamental mechanisms underlying communicative behavior. An alternative model, the Context × Memory model (pronounced “Context times Memory model”) is described. This model is shown to support a view of communication and language that is consistent with emerging best practices and has new implications for language instruction. Adoption of this second model represents a paradigm shift, because this model's perspective on the relationship between cognition and language differs from that of the dominant model.