title: Meaning matters: a clinician's/student's guide to general sign theory and its applicability in clinical settings.
abstract: The pragmatic mapping process and its variants have proven effective in second language learning and teaching. The goal of this paper is to show that the same process applies in teaching and intervention with disordered populations. A secondary goal, ultimately more important, is to give clinicians, teachers, and other educators a tool-kit, or a framework, from which they can evaluate and implement interventions. What is offered is an introduction to a general theory of signs and some examples of how it can be applied in treating communication disorders.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (1) Readers will be able to relate the three theoretical consistency requirements to language teaching and intervention. (2) Readers will be introduced to a general theory of signs that provides a basis for evaluating and implementing interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, P.O. Box 43170, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA. soller@louisiana.edu
authors.forename: Stephen D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Oller
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D019303:Multilingualism; D013334:Students; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014706:Verbal Learning