January 9, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
We’re so pleased to welcome PrAACtical AAC contributor Vicki Clarke back to these pages. While you may remember Vicki from her outstanding AAC Assessment Corner posts, her most recent efforts focus on strengthening our AAC practices. Throughout the series, Vicki draws on her experiences supporting AAC users and teams in clinical and school settings and shares prAACtical information that we can all learn from Introduction to AAC 101 Steps to Learning It is no small task to consider how we will help our students progress from communicating only through behaviors to communicating any message they desire independently and spontaneously. In fact, in 1997, Gloria Soto conducted survey research that tells us: Teachers have always believed that communication training for students is positive, and Communication training is a collaborative effort between teachers and SLPs, Despite these beliefs, there is still a prevalent hesitancy to begin to explicitly instruct students in AAC.... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
January 8, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. This is a great day for catching up on some AAC reading. Monday – 2023: A PrAACtical New Year Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Incorporating Comprehensive Literacy Instruction into AAC Intervention Thursday – Growing AAC Professionals: A Guide to Voice Banking Friday – CAA Con Links – Enero 2023 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Ready for a few more posts to browse? Here’s a sampling that you might enjoy. Does AAC Really Work with Infants and Toddlers? Research Tuesday: Photos Versus PCS – Babies Weigh In AAC & AT Supports in Early Intervention AAC Mythology v2.0: A Few Misconceptions About AAC Intervention A District-wide Core Vocabulary Initiative
Filed under: Featured Posts
January 6, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Each month we feature a Spanish version of our AAC Link Up, CAA con Links. If you have AAC-related announcements, materials, or videos in Spanish that you would like others to know about, we’d love to have you add that information below. Also, please share this with anyone who might be interested in contributing to or using the materials that get added to these posts. You’ll find the place to add that information at the very bottom of this post. Organized by Claudia Marimón, these monthly posts also feature AAC work being done in Spanish-speaking countries and offer translations of material that can help families and service providers. Today’s post focuses on an online AAC conference in Spanish. Take a look and don’t forget to scroll to the bottom to add your link and see what others are sharing. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Bienvenido 2023, comenzamos este año con nuevas ideas y proyectos... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
January 5, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
When university faculty and graduate students work together on AAC content, good things are bound to happen. In this post, we hear from Clinical Associate Professor and SLP Krista Davidson, a strong advocate for AAC, and Katie Gardner, a graduate student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at the University of Iowa. They collaborated on the development of a guide to voice banking and are now making it available to all. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: I have a student project I’m thrilled to share with a larger audience! One of our second-year graduate students, Katie Gardner, created a thorough and detailed guide to voice and message banking. Although the developers of voice banking programs make every effort to design user-friendly software, the whole process can still be quite daunting to some clients and families. From the services to the devices, to the cost, setup, and recordings, there are many considerations that can... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
January 3, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Tuesday, AAC friends! Once a week we invite you to share your own AAC-related content, product news, or anything else that you’d like others in the AAC community to know about. It may be a recent post you’ve written, a slide deck from your AAC presentation, a handout, video, or meme that you’ve posted online, an AAC product you’ve created, an announcement for an AAC course or conference, or any other prAACtical content you developed and want to share with the AAC community. To post your own link, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post and complete the form. Enter the URL and the name/title in the boxes provided below. If you are on a mobile device, click over to the full website version to do this. The AAC Link Up is moderated to keep us from being spammed so it may take a little... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
January 2, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
With 2022 in the rear-view mirror, we’re excited to welcome some prAACtical additions in the New Year. Here are a few things to watch for in the months to come. AAC Implementation Series PrAACtical AAC contributor Vicki Clarke will be back with a limited series on strengthening our AAC practices. Here’s what she shared about the direction of this series. The journey from acquiring an AAC system to using it to communicate autonomously is a long one, with many different routes. Knowing where to begin is a challenge for all of us! AAC 101 Steps of Learning Process is our effort to define this process in our schools, to help professionals and families support their students. In this series of posts, we are considering 5 steps, to move from training to talking, offering a defined path for you and your student learner. Learning to communicate is a shared journey between... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
December 29, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for resources to support core vocabulary instruction? The Year of Core Vocabulary Words and The School Year of Core Vocabulary Words, two series of monthly resources for core vocabulary teaching, remain popular with therapists, educators, and families. We’re reprising those posts for anyone interested in following along and utilizing the resources developed by quite a few people in the AAC community. The initial series was based on a small set of core words for each month (see that post here). We followed that with a second set of Year of Core Vocabulary Word resources for a new list of words (click here for that post). Among the many resources are the activity calendars created by AAC SLP and co-founder of Talking AAC, Rachael Langley. Many other contributors added to these efforts over the years. The School Year of Core Vocabulary Words, authored by guest contributors Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego,... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
December 18, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some AAC posts you might like. Monday – PrAACtical Questions: “What other factors should we consider in choosing the symbol type for AAC?” Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Fostering an AAC-affirming Classroom Thursday – AACidental Mentors: 8 Ways AAC Practitioners Can Help Others Grow Their AAC Skills ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: If you can squeeze in a few more, take a look at some of these posts from the archives. PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: Hello, Holidays! How We Do It: Using AAC to Repair Communication Breakdowns Data Collection for the Beginning AAC User: Essential Things to Measure AAC & ASD: Beyond Scripting More Words, Please! Expanding Our Manual Communication Boards Activity Schedule AACtion
Filed under: Featured Posts
December 15, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Though I’ve participated in several of them, the truth is that I have never been a big fan of formal mentorship programs. Whether arranged by an employer or offered by a professional organization, formal mentorship programs just never seem to live up to their promise. In my experience, informal mentorships that emerge organically are more appealing and effective. In the field of AAC, there are too few mentors, too many people who need mentorship, and too few opportunities for them to connect. But if we think about mentoring more broadly and characterize it as a learning relationship, solutions start to emerge. In the spirit of the holiday season and the feelings of generosity and gratitude that it inspires, we offer a few ideas for how each of us can contribute to the AAC learning and growth of others. Notice the positive. Draw attention to it so that others see those... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
December 12, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
If you’ve been following along in our PrAACtical Questions series, you know that we’ve been contemplating the role that symbols play in AAC decision-making. Previously, we addressed: “How can we make data-based decisions about AAC symbols?” “How important is symbol selection in choosing AAC devices/apps?” and, “What symbols are used in AAC apps & SGDs?” If you’ve followed this series, you know that we’ve advocated an individualized approach to determining which type of symbol to use for AAC. Informal assessment tasks, such as the ones we discussed in a past post, can be helpful in gathering data to use in making this decision. Today, we’re exploring additional factors to consider in symbol selection. When there doesn’t seem to be a clear preference and/or when the performance is similar across symbol types, we turn to some other factors that are worth considering as you make your selection. AAC User Perspective A... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking