First Joint Commission for Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH) standards for speech pathology and audiology services in facilities for individuals with intellectual impairment included the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Lyle Lloyd chaired the JCAH committee that developed the guidelines (Lloyd, 1971; Lloyd & Crosby, 1972).

First major book in language to have more than one chapter relative to AAC, Language Perspectives: Acquisition, Retardation and Intervention (Schiefelbusch & Lloyd, 1974, 1988). This book was on the cutting edge during the mid-70's and sold over 20,000 copies, even though it was not designed as a classroom text. It was based on a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) sponsored conference developed and organized by Lyle Lloyd with Richard Schiefelbusch serving as a consultant.

First book on Communication Assessment and Intervention Strategies (Lloyd, 1976) containing several chapters on AAC.

First to develop the "iconicity hypothesis" in AAC (Fristoe & Lloyd, 1977, 1979). This was presented at the March 1977 Gatlinburg Conference on Research on Mental Retardation as one of 16 reasons why AAC (in particular manual signs) may be successful when other more traditional approaches focusing on spoken output fail. The application of iconicity AAC was proposed three months prior to Brown's (1977, 1978) hypothesizing the importance of iconicity for learning sign language at the June national meeting of interpreters in Chicago. Purdue conducted considerable iconicity research first using typically developing individuals and subsequently individuals with impairments to further test and develop the hypothesis. This research included Purdue's first two AAC doctoral dissertations (Goossens, 1983; Page, 1981) which were some of the initial work on this topic. Early Purdue studies, along with others, were summarized in a major review article relative to the use of manual signs by Doherty (1985) and for both aided and unaided AAC symbols by Lloyd and Fuller (1990).

First university course in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). During the 1977-78 academic year Macalyne Fristoe and Lyle Lloyd developed and team-taught one of the first three. In addition to Purdue's course, two other AAC courses were initiated that same year; one at the University of Wisconsin in Madison by David Yoder and the other at Marquette University by Franklin Silverman. A special feature of the Purdue course was that it was designed as transdisciplinary jointly listed for the department of Audiology & Speech Sciences and the Special Education Program. It was designed for students seeking degrees in either program.

First American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) short course on AAC (Fristoe, Lloyd, & Wilbur, 1978). Lyle Lloyd also organized the first full session (a.k.a. miniseminar on AAC) at the American Psychological Association (APA) convention at the invitation of Division 33 on Mental Retardation (Lloyd, Menyuk, Wilbur, Hoffmeister, & Fristoe, 1979).

First AAC lecture in southern Africa (a.k.a. sub-Saharan Africa). In August, 1981 Lyle Lloyd made a major AAC presentation at the University of Pretoria. This was probably the first AAC lecture in the whole continent, but verification of northern Africa has not been confirmed.

First federally funded doctoral and post-doctoral program for AAC (Lloyd, 1983-86). This project had two successful competitive renewals from the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs to extend the project to 1996. This is a record for the continuous funding of such an AAC project for that agency.

First ISAAC vice-president for publications was. (tenure 1983-1986). Service included the initial conceptualization of the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) journal and negotiations with potential publishers. In 1985, the inaugural year of the journal, subscriptions reached over 1400. The manuscript flow ran into some difficulties and during 1986 subscriptions dropped to under 800, and the original editor resigned for personal reasons. The ISAAC executive committee asked Lloyd to assume the editorship. Lloyd reorganized the review system including three assistant editors (experienced Purdue Ph.D. students representing two countries), a statistical consultant at Purdue, eight associate editors (representing three countries) with major responsibility for the initial review of manuscripts, and an international group of consulting editors (representing 10 countries). During Lloyd's tenure as editor (1986-1993), the journal increased in quantity and quality of articles published and the subscription rate was regained.

First Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in AAC. In 1984 Lyle Lloyd collaborated with Chris Kiernan at the Thomas Corum Research Centre at the University of London.

First extensive AAC research review article in a refereed journal (Doherty, 1985).

First presentation on AAC and literacy at an ISAAC Biennial Conference (Koehler & Lloyd, 1986).

First AAC symbol taxonomy article in a refereed journal (Lloyd & Fuller, 1986). Subsequently the taxonomy was further developed (Fuller, Lloyd, & Schlosser, 1992).

First AAC think tank. This invitational think tank was conducted at Purdue University on August 14-16,1987 just prior to the annual Purdue Crossroads Conference on Communication Disorders. The discussions focused on pre-think tank focal papers prepared by seven of the participants. Some of the papers were revised based on the discussions and, following peer review, they were published in the June, 1988 issue of the AAC journal (Beukelman & Garrett, 1988; Calculator, 1988; Light, 1988; Romski & Sevcik, 1988; Zangari, Kangas, & Lloyd, 1998).

The first annual awards for outstanding refereed papers published in AAC. The first Prentke Romich AAC Awards were presented at the November, 1987 ASHA convention for papers published in 1986 as follows: (a) Prentke Romich AAC Editor's Award to Janice Light, Barbara Collier, and Penny Parnes for their series of papers titled "Communicative Interaction Between Young Nonspeaking Physically Disabled Children and Their Primary Caregivers," (b) Prentke Romich Student Award for a Clinical/Education Paper to Jane E. Doherty for her paper titled "The Effects of Sign Characteristics on Sign Acquisition and Retention: An Integrative Review of the Literature," and (c) Prentke Romich Student Award for a Research Paper with Clinical/Educational Implications to Rose A. Sevcik for her paper (co-authored with Mary Ann Romski) titled "Representational Matching Skills of Persons with Severe Retardation and Different Functional Language Levels." These awards were developed by AAC editor, Lyle Lloyd, with corporate support arranged by Barry Romich, President of the Prentke Romich Company.

First (and to date only) person to receive both the ISAAC's President Award (1988) and the ISAAC Distinguished Service Award (1994). Lyle Lloyd received the ISAAC's President's Awards two times (1988 & 1998) and the ISAAC Distinguished Service Award once (1994).

First AAC Subcommittee of the ASHA Program Committee (1989). This was organized and chaired by Lyle Lloyd for the 1989 ASHA Convention. The AAC subcommittee was the result of the 1989 ASHA Program Committee Chair, Ray Daniloff, asking Lloyd to chair the Language Disorders II Subcommittee which processed AAC papers along with a variety of different types of language disorder papers. Lloyd provided the basic information about need and other technical aspects while Daniloff, with the assistance of Gloria Kellum (an ASHA vice-president responsible for conventions), processed the new subcommittee through the administrative and political processes of ASHA. Originally, the subcommittee was named Language Disorders III, but was subsequently renamed AAC. This action facilitated an increase in the number and quality of AAC presentations included in the annual ASHA convention. Previously the Language Disorders II Subcommittees included only one (or at the most two) people with experience, expertise, and interest in AAC, with most of the committee members reflecting the breadth of papers to be reviewed with little or no direct involvement with AAC. In addition, it was probably helpful that the new committee reflected that AAC may involve primarily speech, primarily language, or major attention to both.

The first corporate support of an annual AAC lecture by a professional at a major professional meeting. The first Phonic Ear AAC Distinguished Lecture was presented by Shirley McNaughton at the November, 1989 ASHA Convention. These lectures were developed by AAC editor, Lyle Lloyd, with corporate support arranged by Jim Mulford, President of Phonic Ear, Inc. These lectures alternated between the ASHA annual conventions and the ISAAC biennial convention and were published in AAC.

First refereed journal article proposing an AAC model (Lloyd, Quist, & Windsor, 1990).

First AAC program to have a doctoral student receive the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) Student Research Paper Award (Schlosser, 1992)

First full AAC chapter (Lloyd & Kangas, 1994) in a major introductory text on Human Communication Disorders (Shames, Wiig, & Secord, 1994). The authorship was reversed for the 5th and 6th editions (Kangas & Lloyd, 1998, 2002).

First extensive history of AAC published in a refereed journal (Zangari, Lloyd, & Vicker, 1994). There were some limited histories published prior to this, but only one (Lloyd & Karlan, 1984) was in a refereed journal and it was much more limited view than the historic perspective presented by Zangari et. al.

First international research videoseminar on AAC in 1997. This is an ongoing part of the Purdue University-University of Pretoria Collaboration Activities with 2-6 video seminars each year.

First AAC text (Lloyd, Fuller, & Arvidson, 1997) to include chapters on multicultural issues (by Gloria Soto, Mary Blake Huer, & Orlando Taylor), sensory impairments (by Doreen Blischak & Charlotte Wasson), and a chapter providing a comprehensive AAC model and taxonomy (by Fuller & Lloyd). The text was also one of the two first to include chapters on literacy (by Doreen Blischak & Martine Smith) and seating and positioning (by Irene McEwen). The other text including both of these chapters was by Glennen & DeCoste (1997).

The first corporate support of an annual lecture by an AAC user (or parent) at the ASHA Convention. The first Ester and Edwin Prentke AAC Lecture was presented by Gus Estrallia in November 1997. The series was established by ASHA AAC Division (#12) coordinator, Lyle Lloyd, with corporate support arranged by Barry Romich, President of the Prentke Romich Company.

First AAC program to have two of its doctorates receive the Mary E. Switzer Fellowship from National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitative Research (NIDRR) during the same year (2001-2002). They were Rajinder Koul (Ph.D., 1994) and Ralf Schlosser (Ph.D., 1994).

First AAC program to have a doctoral student (Helen H. Arvidson, 2000 Ph.D.) to edit two books on AAC - - Augmentative and Alternative Communication: A Handbook of Principles and Practices (Lloyd, Fuller, & Arvidson, 1997) and Augmentative and Alternative Communication: New Directions in Research and Practice (Loncke, Clibbens, Arvidson, & Lloyd, 1999).

First refereed journal article providing a meta-analysis of AAC intervention effectiveness including generalization and maintenance (Schlosser & Lee, 2000). The basic research was conducted at Purdue, but subsequently published after both of the authors had completed their doctorates and assumed other university positions.

First AAC program to have a doctoral student receive the Quadrille Ball Scholarship. On February 2, 2002, Oliver Wendt was awarded this scholarship, which is jointly sponsored by the Institute of International Education and the Germanistic Society of America, is based on a nationwide competition for German graduate students studying in any discipline in the United States.

Last update: December 4, 2002