Throwback Thursday: Beyond Autism Awareness to Understanding, Acceptance, and Inclusion

April 7, 2016 by - Leave your thoughts


Throwback Thursday: Beyond Autism Awareness to Understanding, Acceptance, and Inclusion

  Given that PrAACtical AAC was co-founded by a master clinician with a deep love of autism, Dr. Robin Parker, it comes as no surprise that we’ve published well over 200 posts that focus on supporting children and adults with autism. Here are a few that relate specifically to going beyond awareness and build understanding, acceptance, and inclusion. Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month: 5 Videos for Kids 20 Ways for SLPs to Celebrate Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month  10 Things to do for Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month 30 Things to Do for Autism Awareness Month Keep Learning About Core: 8 More Things to Do for Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Do you have meaningful ways to help others move beyond awareness? We’d love to hear about them.

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PrAACtical Teaching in the ASD Classroom: Little Tips for Big Core

April 4, 2016 by - 6 Comments


PrAACtical Teaching: Little Tips for Big Core

Special educators Lauren Pawlowski and Amy Devin are back with tips for making AAC work in the classroom. In their first post, they talked about using a large communication board that is rich in core vocabulary for aided language input and AAC instruction. Today, they share some of the things they’ve learned to make this more manageable in a busy classroom. Enjoy! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We hope that many of you were able to make your Big Core boards for group instruction.  Now what?? Using Big Core can take a while to get used to.  Even after using it for several years, sometimes we still struggle with finding the words quickly.  Don’t worry about this because our students can’t always find words quickly and it is good for them to see that everyone struggles with language at times.  It can also be empowering to them if you ask for their help! The... [Read More...]

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PrAACtically April: Resources for a Year of Core Vocabulary Words

April 1, 2016 by - 2 Comments


PrAACtically April: Resources for a Year of Core Vocabulary Words

April showers bring May flowers…and a new set of core words for us to highlight. Whether you are following along with the Set 1 (2013) (12 words/month) or the Set 2 (2014) words (16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), or are just getting started, this post has  some helpful resources. Many, many thanks to Tina Lombardi, Russell Cross, Gail Van Tatenhove, Allison Wade, Eric Sailers, Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Rachael Langley, and all the others who have contributed to this effort. Our words for this month are as follows. Set 1 (2013) List: big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who Set 2 (2014) List: blue, brother, close, family, head, last, long, no, old, right, scared, soft, thing, top, wash, whole Here are some resources to help with implementation. Templates for you to plug in your own symbols: Set 1words, Set 2 words Minspeak/Unity version:... [Read More...]

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PrAACtical Resources: Video Explainers for Aided Language Input

March 28, 2016 by - 1 Comment


PrAACtical Resources: Video Explainers for Aided Language Input

A growing number of clinicians, families, and educational teams are prioritizing the use of aided language input as a foundational strategy for AAC learners. When we first started writing about this strategy, it was rare to see adults using AAC to talk with AAC learners.Consistent implementation is still a challenge, but more and more of you are speaking AAC to teach AAC. And quite of few of you are doing your best to influence other stakeholders to support augmented communicators in this way. If you are doing inservices, teaching classes, or guiding teams toward better AAC intervention, the videos listed below may be useful to you in those efforts. Chris Bugaj developed this clear and engaging cartoon explaining the concept for people new to this strategy.   Caroline Musselwhite recorded a full webinar with detailed information on aided language input. Communicare, a clinical practice with a strong focus on AAC,... [Read More...]

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AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 13: March, 2016

March 27, 2016 by - Leave your thoughts


AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 13: March, 2016

Happy Sunday, prAACtical friends. Hope you’re taking some time to recharge, Monday – PrAACtically Pinteresting with Lauren Enders: AAC Video Examples Wednesday – Video of the Week: Boosting Communication with Video Modeling Thursday – PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: April Fool’s Day Above everything else, AAC is a person’s communication tool. If it’s not always available, it’s not AAC.

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PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: April Fool’s Day

March 24, 2016 by - Leave your thoughts


It’s gratifying to hear from so many of you who are including storybook reading in your AAC instruction and therapy. We welcome back Karen Natoci, Assistant Professor and SLP Oregon Health and Science University’s Child Development Rehabilitation Center. She serves on the Neurodevelopment and Rett Evaluation teams and has a caseload of children with Complex Communication Needs and AAC. Karen tells us that “I know very well the feeling of being overwhelmed by the high needs of students with complex communication needs and will readily admit that you have to have a very large ‘toolbox’ of ideas!” Currently, she is on the charter development team to create the Communication Matrix- Virtual Community of Practice with Charity Rowland. At the end of the day, Karen enjoys running, practicing piano, and exploring Portland and the Oregon coast. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Book: April Fool’s Day Written and Illustrated by Dee Smith (Also available from Deesignery.com) Core Vocabulary focus:  Look,... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Boosting Communication with Video Modeling

March 23, 2016 by - Leave your thoughts


Looking for a research-supported strategy to accelerate communication learning? Consider adding video models to your AAC intervention plan. In previous posts, we’ve written about our love for this strategy and shared resources . Today, we visit one our our favorite preschool teachers, Lindy McDaniel of The Considerate Classroom, to look at an example of how she uses this strategy to support young learners.  

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PrAACtically Pinteresting with Lauren Enders: AAC Video Examples

March 21, 2016 by - 2 Comments


PrAACtically Pinteresting with Lauren Enders: AAC Video Examples

Among the things that our prAACtical value the most are videos of AAC in action. Lauren Enders once again comes to our rescue with dozens of them to explore. Enjoy! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: For this installment of PrAACtically Pinteresting, I’d like to highlight one of the boards that I reference most when working with SLPs, teachers, support staff, and parents who support individuals who are learning to use AAC.  This board is called AAC: Video Examples of Implementation/Aided Language Input and is a compilation of videos that show clinicians, teachers, and parents demonstrating excellent aided language input/stimulation skills with AAC users.  Whenever I come across a new video that is an wonderful example of how to support language development and system learning in an AAC user, I pin it to this board. When pinning videos, I do my best to represent an array of AAC system types. You will see videos showing various dedicated devices,... [Read More...]

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