September 8, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
It isn’t every day that we get to hear from AAC interventionists who’ve been doing this work for decades. Today, we are thrilled to welcome back SLP Marlene Cummings from Oakland Schools in Michigan. Marlene has written several very popular posts on AAC in educational settings. (Click here to peruse them.) In this post, Marlene gets us thinking about ways to deal with change in a positive and sustainable fashion. Her passion for supporting both kids and colleagues is infectious. Enjoy! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: I have the privilege, as part of a 5 member AAC Team, of supporting 28 school districts with more than 100 teams serving students with complex communication needs using AAC. The staff members and teams we support come with varied levels of knowledge, diverse experiences, and degrees of confidence. For us the new school year is just around the corner. We are already receiving calls and emails reporting... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: collaboration, community, Marlene Cummings, schools, Team work
September 7, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
As we all know, it’s a big leap from having an AAC system to being able to use it functionally. For many of our prAACtical friends, one of the areas in which they struggle is conversation. It is no easy thing to have even a brief social interaction. We’ve written before about the use of scripting, a powerful strategy that we can use to help learners build conversational skills.` Scripts provide structure. As clinicians and educators, we understand that many of our learners do best when there is a clear beginning, middle, and end to an activity. For many people learning to use AAC, conversation is a VERY challenging thing because it can be quite amorphous. Scripting gives the learner practice getting comfortable with some of the skills that they need to use in conversation by adding the element of structure. The script has a clear starting point (e.g., “Look... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: intervention strategies, scripting, visual supports
September 6, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Monday – PrAACtically September: AAC Core Vocabulary Resources Tuesday – PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: It’s Okay To Be Different Wednesday – Video of the Week: Martin Pistorius Thursday – Throwback Thursday: 10 Posts on AAC for the Beginning Communicator
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
September 3, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for information to help you round out your services to beginning communicators? Here are some previous posts to explore. Intervention Core Words, Direct Vocabulary Instruction, and Beginning Communicators Helping Beginning Communicators Expand Their Sentence Length Let Me Tell You Something: Narratives for the Beginning Communicator Breaking Through with Emerging Intentional and Beginning Communicators of All Ages A PrAACtical Literacy Activity for Beginning Communicators Ideas About Vocabulary Instruction for Beginning Communicators Videos Recommended Practices for Beginning Communicators Teaching Prelinguistic Communication to Beginning Communicators Using Symbols with Beginning Communicators Other 5 Facebook Groups for Families of Beginning Communicators
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: beginning communicator
September 1, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Get ready to read! Interactive storybook reading is one of my favorite ways to build AAC skills. No matter what the age or kind of disability, it seems like my therapy always includes ssome type of reading material. We are so fortunate to welcome back Karen Natoci, a Michigan SLP who shares our passion for literacy and AAC. You can explore some of Karen’s previous PrAACtically Reading posts here. In this post, Karen introduces us to a book about differences, and shares her ideas for using it to build AAC fluency. Be sure to check out her lesson plan and the video clips that she is so generously sharing. ——————————————————————————————- Book: It’s Okay to Be Different, by Todd Parr Core Vocabulary: all gone, big, different, do, don’t, finished, get, go, he, help, here, I, it, like, look, me, more, no, not, out, she, small, some, that, uh oh, want, where, who, you Additional Vocabulary-... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Karen Natoci, reading
August 31, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
It’s hard to believe that summer is just about over (at least here in Florida). If you are supporting a child or adult who has a core vocabulary based AAC system, you know how much it takes to help them learn to use all of the wonderful words at their disposal. One strategy is to select a subset of their words to highlight each month. We can then take this small subset of their core words and: make an extra effort to model them on their device or a facsimile do specific instructional activities to teach the word meaning plan games and tasks to help them better recognize and understand the symbols for those words, and, plan specific opportunities for them to say these words daily conversation and instructional tasks. Our prAACtical friends need practice, practice, and more practice. Over time, they will gain more fluency and automaticity with the... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, download, resources, Year of Core
August 30, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Monday – AAC Printables Tuesday – AAC in the Classroom: Presentations You May Have Missed Wednesday – Video of the Week: Angel Voices AAC Group by Kate Ahern Thursday – AAC Teamwork: PrAACtical Tool #2
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
August 27, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Even when everyone has good intentions, AAC implementation doesn’t happen overnight. Strengthening our resolve to learn the student’s AAC system, model it as we speak to them, provide instruction, and give ample opportunities for practice takes commitment and leadership. In the past, we’ve talked about strategies to get the team onboard with skills like aided language input, using no-tech communication boards to build language, and shared training materials. In this series, we’re sharing some printables to recognize the efforts of our team members, and keep them energized to keep going. Here is the second set of tags/bookmarks to share with your teams. You can download them here. If you missed the first set, you can get those here.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: aided language input, collaboration
August 25, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
It’s so gratifying to see the growing number of AAC presentations that are being offered around the country. If you serve school-aged children, here are a few presentation handouts that might be of interest. Building Classroom Communities to Support AAC Users by Ashley Robinson AAC Implementation Strategies by Vicki Clarke and Jenna Coyer Making AAC Work in the Classroom by Ann Kuhlmeier
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: classroom, education, handout, presentation, schools
August 24, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Thanks to all of you who are working tirelessly to spread the word about AAC.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: download, resources