It’s been a wonderful week of building awareness and acceptance! Monday – How I Do It with Kimberly Scanlon: Using Visual Supports to Build Attention and Cooperation Tuesday – Teach Me Tuesday: PECS V+ Wednesday – Video of the Week: Core Vocabulary 101 Thursday – Supporting Language Growth in AAC Learners: Part 2
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Last month, we began some musings about the sad reality that the percentage of people who use AAC to communicate in a grammatically correct fashion is woefully small. In that post, we explored some of the reasons for that and looked at conversations in which the communication partner does a lot of vertical scaffolding. While the term vertical scaffolding may be new to some of you, the concept is one with which you are quite familiar. Here’s an example: Learner: Olaf. Elsa. Clinician: Are you telling me about Frozen? Learner: Nods Clinician: What about Frozen? Learner: Book. Clinician: Oh, did you get a Frozen book for your birthday? Learner: Nods excitedly Clinician: Awesome! You should bring it next time so we can read it together. Scenarios like this are very common in AAC, especially among communicators who use their AAC to say 1-2 words at a time. Because their... [Read More...]
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Tagged With: language intervention, language therapy
Last month, we featured some wonderful videos from a project of the Angelman Syndrome Foundation that is a great starting point for anyone preparing to implement robust AAC for the first time (you can see that here). Today, we return to the ASF Communication Training Series to get an overview of key constructs in core vocabulary. SLP Maureen Nevers helps us understand the role of core vocabulary in AAC systems and instructional plans (such as IEPs). Even if you are familiar with core vocabulary, this video addresses issues that will support implementation. Many, many thanks to the ASF and the Foster Family Charitable Foundation for the support the provided to create this video and for making it available to all of us.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Angelman Syndrome Foundation, ASF, core vocabulary, Maureen Nevers
We’re back with another Teach Me Tuesday post to help us all learn more about the wide range of traditional SGDs and AAC apps. If you use the traditional paper-based PECS or the PECS III app, this may be of interest to you. You can use these resources to explore PECS Phase IV+ by Pyramid Education Consultants. PECS Phase IV+ App Product overview Video Overview Manual Getting Started Video Where to go for help Phone: 302 368-2515 Email: pyramidus@pecs.com
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Tagged With: Teach Me Tuesday
Having solid goals and fun activities is one thing, but being able to connect the two and teach communication and language takes skill. We have the best outcomes when the interventionist knows a variety of strategies that can support the learning outcomes. We’ve written about implementing countdown boards and other visual supports to build attention in the past, and have been gratified to hear from many of you who utilize those strategies. In today’s post, SLP Kimberly Scanlon, owner of Scanlon Speech Therapy, discusses how she implements this strategy and shares her own clever variation. You can download it at the end of the post. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: You plan the session. In fact, you over-plan and over prepare. You carefully select materials ensuring they are appropriate, engaging, and motivating for the client. Each activity will be short. Short is key as this student grows restless and losses interest rather quickly. You remove... [Read More...]
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Tagged With: attention, countdown board, Kimberly Scanlon
It’s been a wonderful week to launch a month of activities for building AAC awareness and acceptance! Monday – PrAACtically October: Year of Core Word Resources Tuesday – PrAACtically October: A Core Word Calendar Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC in a Shared Reading Group Thursday – AAC Awareness Month
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Happy International AAC Awareness Month! Do you have plans to celebrate or build awareness about AAC? Here are some images that can help you do just that. The larger images are sized for Facebook header images and the smaller ones for Facebook profile photos.
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Tagged With: AAC Awareness, Facebook
Looking for a way to connect with families to encourage modeling of AAC at home? If your learners have AAC systems that are rich in core vocabulary, this calendar by Rachael Langley may be just the ticket. Each day has a suggestion for things to do or say that build experience with our October core words. Click on the image to get a version you can download. BIG thanks to Rachael for creating these each month and allowing us to share them on PrAACtical AAC.
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Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, core vocabulary, Rachael Langley
It has been so exciting to hear about the growing number of classrooms, therapy sessions, and families who are prioritizing high-frequency core words with AAC learners. Whether you are using a high tech SGD, AAC app, or no-tech communication boards/books, core vocabulary teaching can play a powerful role in building language skills. If you are following along with our 2013 Year of Core (first set with 12 words/month) or the 2014 A(nother) Year of Core: (second set 16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), you may have printed out some of the word cards to use with the AAC learners in your life. Thanks to the kindness of PrAACtical AAC readers (Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Alison Wade, Russell Cross, Gail Van Tatenhove, Eric Sailers, Rachael Langley, Laura Kessell, Christine Bayley and others) we have a variety of resources to explore. Once you have them, the idea... [Read More...]
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Tagged With: Year of Core
Monday – PrAACtically SLPs: An AAC App Journey Tuesday – Supporting Language Growth in AAC Learners, Part 1 Wednesday – Video of the Week: Preparing for an AAC Journey Thursday – PrAACtical Resources: Communication Access Cards
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking