Get Ready: 28 Ways to Improve Communication with AAC Users in February

January 29, 2013 by - Leave your thoughts

28 Things to do to IMrpve Communication for AAC Users
A- A+

It’s almost February and and we were thinking about ways to encourage communication in a fun and meaningful way for the whole month.  The best way we know is to build a visual language environment by providing lots of AAC modeling (Aided Language Input-ALI) and by using lots of visual supports. Here are some ideas to expand opportunities and/or to get started. We would love to know what works, what doesn’t, and any other ways you build visual language into everyday experiences.

  1. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to say ‘I Love You’ . Make it part of a routine
  2. Offer learners a book choice board/choice book when deciding what book to read in speech-language therapy/classroom/home
  3. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to tell how you feel when something is hard or difficult for you
  4. Use a ‘stop sign’ symbol to indicate an off limit area
  5. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to describe an exciting event
  6. Have a sign in sheet for ALL students to sign in to their session (can be adapted to sign in for class or a specific home activity). You can use writing, a name stamp, a sticker, or any other means of ‘writing’
  7. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to say ‘Great Work ‘
  8. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to talk about a favorite song
  9. Read an adapted book
  10. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to ask questions about the book
  11. Have a communication display for answering open ended questions about a book
  12.  Have Learners use a choice board to tell about the people/animals/things you love
  13. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to tell a story about love
  14. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to discuss reasons people love each other
  15. Use pictures/photos to write a story about an exciting event
  16.  Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to ask ‘where’
  17. Use a place choice board to decide where to go for ‘free time’
  18. Use Aided language Input (ALI) to talk about ‘when’ to do an activity. Use a schedule or calendar to visualize the ‘when’
  19. Use a rating scale to decide together the difficulty of an assignment or task
  20. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to talk about a ‘wish’
  21. Use a mini-schedule to show the steps for a new game
  22. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to talk when playing a game together
  23. Offer a game choice board to decide what game everyone should play
  24.  Use a visual support to show ‘how many’ of a non-preferred task a student needs to complete before getting a break
  25. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to tell that you are mad and why
  26. Make a list of items needed for an upcoming activity or event
  27. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to tell that you are happy and why
  28.  Use a monthly calendar to write (pencil, keyboard, stickers, symbols, stamps) in all the special events for March

Have fun building a visual language environment!

Happysmiley

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed under:

Tagged With: ,

This post was written by Robin Parker

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.