The purpose of this study was to identify the rates of communication expressed by 17 children with severe disabilities in high-rate school contexts while piloting a new coding system for intentional communication acts (ICAs). The following nine characteristics were used when coding ICAs expressed in both child initiated and adult initiated communicative interactions: joint attention, form of communication, use of pause, persistence, repetition, repair, expression of pleasure or displeasure when understood or misunderstood, expression of pleasure or displeasure to communication partner's message, and evidence of comprehension. Children communicated 1.7 - 8.0 ICAs per minute in the highest rate contexts. Nine of the 34 high-rate contexts were speech clinical sessions, six were activities that included eating, 30 were familiar activities, and four were novel activities.

Micro‐enterprise efforts have focused mainly on economic development, although ignoring the social and environmental consequences can jeopardize success. This essay examines the characteristics of successful groups and the barriers they face. The lessons learned from successful micro‐enterprises suggest that the key is to bring together the elements of sustainable development with the importance of the key fact that the micro‐enterprises are community based. The thesis proposed is that micro‐enterprises can foster sustainable development if, and only if, they are integrated in a view of community development that links the social, economic and environmental dimensions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

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This article examines a community engagement process developed as part of leadership training for clinical trainees in the Oregon Leadership Education for Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Program in a complex community with diverse families who have children with disabilities. The goal is to examine the process and lessons learned for clinical trainees and their mentors from such a process. This is a case study conducted as community-engaged action research by participant-observers involved in the Cornelius community for the past 4 years. The authors include faculty members and clinical trainees of the Oregon LEND Program at the Oregon Health & Science University, families with children with disabilities in the community, and city officials. It is a critical case study in that it studied a community engagement process in one of the poorest communities in the region, with an unusually high population of children with disabilities, and in a community that is over half Latino residents. Lessons learned here can be helpful in a variety of settings. Community engagement forum, community engagement processes, a debriefing using a seven-element feasibility framework, and trainee evaluations are key elements. A community engagement forum is a meeting to which community members and stakeholders from pertinent agencies are invited. Community engagement processes used include a steering committee made up of, and guided by community members which meets on a regular basis to prioritize and carry out responses to problems. Trainee evaluations are based on a set of questions to trigger open-ended responses. Lessons learned are based on assessments of initial and long-term outcomes of the community engagement processes in which families, community members, local officials and LEND trainees and faculty participate as well as by trainee participant-observations, end of year evaluations and trainee debriefings at the time of the initial community assessment forum. The thesis that emerges is that community engagement processes can afford significant opportunities for clinicians in training to develop their leadership skills toward improving maternal and child health for minority families with children with disabilities while building capacity in families for advocacy and facilitating change in the community.

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