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Effective communication is a key factor in presenting Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) awareness and prevention campaigns, and delivering treatment programmes, particularly in South Africa where different ethnic groups and a diversity of languages and educational attainment levels are encountered. Language is an important element of such communication. The purpose of this paper is to examine the communication effectiveness of AIDS-related intervention messages.

Case-based semi-structured interviews, with 42 employees from three construction organisations, and with six telephone counsellors from a service provider, were used to explore language in the HIV/AIDS context in the construction industry in the Western Cape region.

Workers’ knowledge about HIV (a key element in prevention and willingness to engage in treatment regimes) tended to align with their level of education. African cultures may inhibit the use of plain language about AIDS. Graphic posters with text in different languages were the most preferred communication media, but need periodic refreshment to remain effective. For toolbox talks and other company presentations, a comprehensive approach to language differences is limited, and appropriate confirmatory feedback loops are not used – the message sent is not always the message received. The recruitment and training processes for service provider counsellors ensure a more comprehensive grasp of HIV knowledge and a more consistent approach to communication.

Construction organisations should be more careful in their HIV/AIDS campaigns and programmes, ensure better targeting of audiences and pay more nuanced and sensitive attention to language needs, gender differences and cultural contexts with respect to communicating with workers in ways that engage them more fully about HIV/AIDS, stigma and disclosure.

Communication effectiveness is pivotal in the provision of intervention management by construction firms. Ineffective language and communication processes directly and adversely influence HIV/AIDS intervention management success.

The purpose of this paper is to test a predictive model for organizational factors on the extent to which organizations involved in non‐governmental organizations (NGO) or bilateral partnerships conduct campaign planning research.

In‐depth interviews with 120 heads of organizations running AIDS campaigns in Uganda were conducted. The interviewers queried the participants regarding characteristics of their organization and the extent to which they conducted campaign planning research during their last campaign. The information was assigned to quantitative categories, so that the predictive model could be tested using path modeling software.

The results of the path analysis indicated that the model fits the data well. An emergent finding from the path analysis involved the relationship between the number of trained staff workers and the tendency to solicit outreach worker feedback. Organizations with a greater number of trained staff workers sought outreach worker feedback to a greater extent during the campaign. The model also clarified that none of the tested variables predicted the organization's frequency of pretesting campaign messages.

Limitations of the current study include its single‐issue and single‐country focus. Organizational factors were excluded in this study that may be relevant and should be considered in future research (e.g. size of the organization, management style, public versus private). The factors included in this study, however, are commonly studied characteristics of organizations. Regardless of location, organizations differ in terms of financial resources, formalization, and focus, and engage in formative research to varying extents. Research is also an important part of the campaign process, regardless of the issue or organization type.

NGOs that involve community outreach workers for assistance in crafting campaign messages and test early messaging strategies with audience members are likely to see improved campaign effectiveness and improved cultural competencies.

By identifying the characteristics of local organizations that may facilitate formative research activities, this study makes a significant contribution to the literature on HIV/AIDs and health communication campaigns. As the context surrounding HIV/AIDS campaigns continues to evolve, NGOs and bi‐lateral organizations are in continued demand to develop new and more effective campaign messages to address emerging issues.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the communication applications (apps) that can be used with devices such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone to support augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

A brief discussion of the research into the use of high‐technology communication aids is followed by an introduction to the iPad, iPod and iPhone AAC apps.

These devices and apps clearly have a role within the spectrum of AAC devices currently available. They may have some distinct advantages in cost, ease of use and acceptability but more research into their use is needed.

This article starts with a model of communicative competence and presents some recent research into barriers in the use of high‐technology AAC. It suggests some ways in which AAC apps may address some of the barriers to implementation and functional use. Finally, the need for individual assessment to determine specific communication needs is stressed. These devices and apps may not always be the best solution for people with complex communication needs.

The aim of this study is to explore short‐term outcomes of communication aid provision from the perspective of children with complex communication needs.

A total of ten children were interviewed at two time points. The first interviews took place before or within two weeks of the arrival of a new communication aid. A second follow‐up interview was carried out between six and ten weeks later. Initial interviews explored children's views concerning their ability to engage in school activities that they deemed important but difficult to achieve. First interviews also examined children's self‐perceptions related to their self‐efficacy and self‐esteem, and perceptions of others' attitudes towards themselves. Children's views concerning the likely impact of the new communication aid on taking part in activities and their self‐concepts were also explored. The follow‐up interviews asked children to reflect on the short‐term impact of the new communication aid.

Children reported expected and unexpected positive changes at follow‐up. Notably, unanticipated and undesirable changes were also reported.

The paper addresses the critical issue of early outcomes following communication aid provision from the viewpoint of children themselves.

Discusses the differences between systemic social research and conventional, non‐systemic empirical research. Outlines paradigmatically the major stages, methodological decisions and results of an empirical project. Focuses on intimate communication and AIDS prevention. Distinguishes four different intimate system types. These system types are shown to influence the risk management of an HIV infection. Sociocybernetic empirical research implies typically systemic approaches in the major phases of the research process: reframing; observing observations; selecting and distinguishing; and intervening indirectly.

The purpose of the current study is to theorize and apply a socio-technological model – the powerful influence of social determinants in conditioning the effects of information attention on social outcomes. Fundamentally, this study is motivated by the idea that the social determinants of information flow can be used as a predictive tool to inform public socio-policy decisions.

This study draws upon digital disparity literature and uses publicly available Google search queries in exploring online information attention and its relationships to the HIV/AIDS diffusion in US cities. This study’s secondary data collected from extant sources is used to draw attention to a holistic urban ecology under which online search attention represents the variation of information access at the aggregate level.

The main finding shows that online information attention, as indicated by search trend, is far from being a simple predictor, but operates in complex interactions with existing social environments. A bivariate correlation between AIDS information search and AIDS diffusion rate was found to be significant. However, predictive multivariate models displayed robust effects of social contextual variables, such as income level and racial composition of cities, in moderating the effect of online search information flow.

The importance of these insights is discussed for reducing socio-health disparities at the macro-social level, and policymakers and health administrators are recommended to incubate supportive online infrastructure as an effective preventive measure at the time of a crisis.

The unique contribution of this study is the premise that looks at the aggregate-ecological contour of cities within which the potential benefits of information occur, instead of examining the isolated function of mediated information per se. In this vein, online information search, in lieu of the exposure to mass media message that is often measured via self-reported items, is a particularly unique and fruitful area of future inquiry that this study promotes.

Story‐telling is recognised as important to child language development. However, children who use electronic communication aids have limited opportunities to develop their story‐telling compared to their natural speaking (NS) peers. The “Telling Stories”' project aims to explore narrative construction in teaching staff‐aided communicator dyads.

A pilot study was conducted to examine the feasibility of research methods. Video data were captured during a fictional story‐telling task. Two measures were investigated: communicative modality; and linguistic move type. Momentary time sampling (MTS) was applied to the video to determine range and proportions of communicative modalities in use. A coding framework was applied to determine the distribution of linguistic move‐types across the interlocutors.

The findings revealed multimodal contributions from both interlocutors. The linguistic move‐type coding indicates the NS assumed a more dominant, initiating role. MTS was shown to be an appropriate methodology for this research.

The pilot provides provisional data regarding narrative constructions of an aided speaker and tests the efficacy of the MTS methodology prior to the full study. Refinements to the protocol to be used in the main study are reported. The main study aims to provide detailed analysis of the narrative constructions of aided speakers, currently an area with little existing research.

Working memory (WM) is a key component of effective and efficient communication in typical communicators, with, potentially, even greater significance for those who benefit from augmentative communication. This study aims to explore the emergence of WM strategies in children with complex communication needs who may be reliant on aided communication strategies.

A quasi‐experimental repeated measures, multi‐factorial research design, comparing 30 children with complex communication needs (CCN) aged three to six years and 30 age‐matched typically developing peers. Picture stimuli representing verbs and adjectives in three categories: control words, long words and phonologically similar words are presented visually or silently in sequences of increasing length to establish each participant's memory span.

Articulatory rehearsal does not appear to be used as a memory strategy with verb material. With adjective material, there is limited evidence of emerging articulatory rehearsal at age six. Input modality does not influence rehearsal of either verbs or adjectives.

The study is small scale and exploratory, but there are suggestions that both groups of participants handle verb and adjective material differently to noun material.

Emerging WM skill in children with CCN needs to be considered in relation to the use of speech generating technology.

This paper contributes to understanding of the development and potential influence of WM in efficient aided communication.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the journey of a young person with severe and complex communication needs from no formal expressive communication system, to a point where he is motivated and able to use a text based voice output communication aid for a range of communication functions, in a variety of settings, and with a range of communication partners.

The paper is a descriptive single case study, documenting long‐term changes in speech, language, and communication needs and use, and discontinuation of use, of range of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools.

The paper describes the different AAC interventions and their success or otherwise in supporting the young person. It also describes key educational and therapeutic aspects of his management. Changes in the young person's interaction, language and literacy skills, and how his family and the professionals around him perceived the changes in his communication are highlighted.

The paper is a description of one person without a known underlying diagnosis of his severe and complex communication impairment and might, therefore, be of restricted use when generalized.

There are few published longitudinal descriptions concerning how, why, and when young people use or discard AAC tools. This paper highlights the multiple and various factors of the factors that can be at work when actually providing intervention.