Communication in Cyberspace

This Article examines a problem in cybercrime law that is both persistent and pervasive. What counts as “communication” on the Internet? Defining the term is particularly important for crimes such as cyberstalking, cyberharassment, and cyberbullying, where most statutes require a showing that the alleged perpetrator “communicated” with the victim or impose a similar requirement through slightly different language. This Article takes up the important task of defining communication. As a foundation to our discussion, we provide the first comprehensive survey of state statutes and case law relating to cyberstalking, cyberharassment, and cyberbullying. We then examine the realities of the way people use the Internet to develop a definition of “communication” that reflects those realities. That is, we aim to provide effective tools by which prosecutors can address wrongful conduct without punishing innocuous behavior or chilling speech. We conclude by proposing a model statute that appropriately defines “communication.” We recommend that state legislatures adopt the statute or modify existing laws to match it in pertinent part and demonstrate how the statute would apply in a range of situations.

Speak up!: A new approach to communication,

First published, 1943, under title: Communication, written and oral.

Meeting in the middle: Improving communication in primary health care consultations with people with an intellectual disability

The increased presence and participation in Australian society of people with an intellectual disability provides challenges for the provision of primary health care. General practitioners (GPs) identify themselves as ill equipped to provide for this heterogeneous population. A major obstacle to the provision of appropriate health care is seen as inadequate communication between the GP and the person with an intellectual disability, who may or may not be accompanied by a carer or advocate. This qualitative study in which five GPs, three people with intellectual disability, seven carers and two advocates (parent and friend) were interviewed was conducted in Brisbane, Australia. The aim was to better understand the factors that have an impact upon the success of communication in a medical consultation. Findings suggested that GPs were concerned with the aspects of communication difficulties which influenced their ability to adequately diagnose, manage and inform patients. Implications for practice management were also identified. People with intellectual disability reported frustration when they felt that they could not communicate adequately with the GP and annoyance when they were not included in the communication exchange. Carers were strong advocates for the person with intellectual disability, but indicated insufficient skill and knowledge to provide the level of assistance required in the consultation. The outcome was a model of cooperation that outlined the responsibilities of all players in the medical encounter, prior to, during and after the event.

Facilitating communication in children with multiple disabilities: three case studies of girls with Rett syndrome

Purpose: To investigate the effect of cueing on communicative responses of children with multiple disabilities in an educational setting. It was hypothesized that differences would exist in teacher interactional styles and the use of orienting cues would increase the communicative responses of the participants. Method: A naturalistic observation research method was employed in order to examine the interaction of three student-teacher dyads in three special schools. Three different activity types were videotaped from which interactions were coded and analysed. Results: Multi-modal cueing facilitated communicative responses of children with Rett syndrome. However, increased communication opportunities provided by caregivers did not elicit increased responses from the girls. Conclusion: There is a difference in cueing by teachers in their interactions with children with multiple disabilities. Also, more frequent communicative interactions did not necessarily lead to increased student responses. It is suggested that amount and type of cueing may need to be considered to be effective in generating student responses. The small number of participants, however, means findings should be viewed cautiously and that more research is indicated.

Evaluating parent use of functional communication training to replace and enhance prelinguistic behaviours in six children with developmental and physical disabilities

Purpose: To evaluate parent use of functional communication training (FCT) to replace and enhance prelinguistic behaviours in six young children with developmental and physical disabilities. Method: Initially, the communicative functions of the children's prelinguistic behaviours were assessed by parent interviews. Three communication functions were identified for each child and intervention goals to replace or enhance the child's existing prelinguistic behaviours were developed in consultation with parents. After a baseline phase, parents received training on implementation of FCT. Intervention was staggered across the three communicative functions in a multiple-probe design. Results: Intervention was associated with increases in the replacement communication behaviour. Treatment gains were generally maintained at the monthly follow-ups. Conclusion: The results suggest that parents can use FCT to enhance communication skills in children with developmental and physical disabilities.

Stakeholder opinion of functional communication activities following traumatic brain injury

Primary objective : To establish a process whereby assessment of functional communication reflects the authentic communication of the target population. The major functional communication assessments available from the USA may not be as relevant to those who reside elsewhere, nor assessments developed primarily for persons who have had a stroke as relevant for traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. Research design : The investigation used the Nominal Group Technique to elicit free opinion and support individuals who have compromised communication ability. A survey mailed out sampled a larger number of stakeholders to test out differences among groups. Methods and procedures : Five stakeholder groups generated items and the survey determined relative 'importance'. The stakeholder groups in both studies comprised individuals with traumatic brain injury and their families, health professionals, third-party payers, employers, and Maori, the indigenous population of New Zealand. Main outcomes and results : There was no statistically significant difference found between groups for 19 of the 31 items. Only half of the items explicitly appear on a well-known USA functional communication assessment. Conclusions : The present study has implications for whether functional communication assessments are valid across cultures and the type of impairment.

Personal factors, communication and vision predict social participation in older adults

Social isolation is a predictor of morbidity and mortality in older people. Speech pathologists often consider that communication disabilities associated with normal ageing (sensory loss, language and discourse changes) contribute to social isolation. The aims of this study were to describe the functioning of older people using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (WHO, 2001) as a conceptual framework for language and sensory functioning, communicative activity, and social participation, and to explore the relationship between communication (both at an impairment level and an activity level), social participation and personal factors (demographics and emotional health). In a prospective study, 47 women and 28 men aged 62 to 98 years (mean=74 yrs) completed objective and subjective assessments of functioning and participation, and provided personal information. Assessments were individually conducted in a face- to-face interview situation with the primary researcher, who was a speech pathologist. Assessments revealed the sample had predominantly mild hearing and vision impairments, unimpaired naming ability, frequent involvement in a wide range of communication activities, and variable social network size and social activities participation. Social participation was shown to be associated with vision, communication activities, age, education and emotional health. Naming and hearing impairments were not reliable predictors of social participation. It was concluded that professionals interested in maintaining and improving social participation of older people could well consider these predictors in community-directed interventions. Speech pathologists should therefore promote older people's involvement in everyday communicative activities while also limiting the impact of communication-related impairments, so that social participation is maintained in our ageing population.

Measuring outcomes of a communication program for older people with hearing impairment using the International Outcome Inventory

The main objective of this study was to describe the outcomes of a communication education program for older people with hearing impairment using the International Outcome Inventory - Alternative Interventions (IOI-AI) and the version for significant others (IOI-AI-SO). Ninety-six people aged 58 to 94 years participated in an interactive group education program for two hours per week for five weeks. The IOI-AI was administered at one to two weeks after the last educational session and 29 significant others also completed the IOI-Al-SO at this time. Overall, positive results were obtained using both questionnaires, and satisfaction with the program was particularly high. Findings also compared favourably to reports of outcomes for other audiological interventions (i.e., another communication training program and hearing aid fitting). Principal components analysis of the IOI-AI revealed a somewhat different factor structure than the original IOI-HA. The two versions of the 101 applied in this study are recommended as simple and effective measures of the outcomes of alternative interventions.

Development of a multi-tiered speech annotation system for accented English

This paper discusses methodological issues in the development of a multitiered, phonetic annotation system, intended to capture pronunciation variation in the speech of second language learners and to serve in construction of a data base for training ASR models to recognize major pronunciation variants in the assessment of accented English.

A corpus-based analysis of transfer effects and connected speech processes in Vietnamese English

This paper presents a corpus-based descriptive analysis of the most prevalent transfer effects and connected speech processes observed in a comparison of 11 Vietnamese English speakers (6 females, 5 males) and 12 Australian English speakers (6 males, 6 females) over 24 grammatical paraphrase items. The phonetic processes are segmentally labelled in terms of IPA diacritic features using the EMU speech database system with the aim of labelling departures from native-speaker pronunciation. An analysis of prosodic features was made using ToBI framework. The results show many phonetic and prosodic processes which make non-native speakers’ speech distinct from native ones. The corpusbased methodology of analysing foreign accent may have implications for the evaluation of non-native accent, accented speech recognition and computer assisted pronunciation- learning.