It’s another Throwback Thursday, and we’re visiting the vaults to share these posts. Teaching Core Vocabulary The First 12: Getting Started with Core Words 5+ Ways to Make Page Fluffers and Spacers AAC Vocabulary Lists Make It Monday: Manual Communication Boards with Core Vocabulary Communication Boards: Colorful Considerations
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: communication boards, core words, vocabulary
Know anyone who has access to AAC tools but doesn’t yet use them throughout the day? Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for a while but doesn’t use it as frequently as her team had hoped. Hudson is transitioning from PECS to an AAC device with more robust language. While different in many ways, each of these learners has a common need: frequent opportunities to learn about and use core vocabulary. To accomplish this, their SLPs, teachers, and families select a dozen or so core words and pay special attention to those each month. That allows them to highlight this small group of words using focused language stimulation, aided language input, and specific activities designed to teach or practice them. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that. Set 1... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core words, Year of Core Vocabulary
Before you know it, we’ll be ready to flip the calendar to a new page. That means it’s time to prepare to highlight a new set of core words to keep our AAC learners moving forward and expanding their use of AAC throughout the day. Before we dig into this, though, we’ll take a quick detour. Last week, we announced the start of a Spanish language initiative here at PrAACtical AAC, and invited anyone who is Spanish-English bilingual to volunteer their time and skills. In that process, we’ve had a lot of requests for a Spanish version of this series. That’s where YOU come in. If you would like to help us by translating one of the Year of Core Vocabulary posts, please reach out and join our efforts. You can sign up to participate here. We’d love to get enough volunteers to have a full set of these posts... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, Another Year of Core Words, core vocabulary, core words
It’s almost time to turn the calendar to a new page and that gives us the opportunity to highlight a new set of core words. Whether you are following along with the Set 1 (12 words/month) or the Set 2 words (16 words/month; Different than the previous core words), or are just getting started, this post has some helpful resources. We’re grateful to Nancy Inman, Brian Whitmer, Tina Lombardi, Barbara Fernandes, 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 List: big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who Set 2 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... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core words, Year of Core Vocabulary
Happy 2017! As we welcome another prAACtical year, it’s time to start preparing the materials we’ll need to model and teach core words to our AAC learners. This is a great time to get the word cards and other materials for the Year of Words (Set 1/2013; Set 2/2014) ready to use with the AAC learners in our lives. Thanks to the generous spirit of PrAACtical AAC readers we have posts with a variety of resources: Minspeak/Unity version: Set 1/2013 PCS versions: Set 1/2013 , Set 2/2014 Speak for Yourself version: Set 2/2014 SymbolStix version: Set 1/2013 Lesson Pix: Set1/2013 Smarty Symbols: Set 1 words, Set 2 words CoughDrop: Set 1 words; Set 2 words WordPower: Set 1 words (Note: This is a large file that contains the resources for several versions of WordPower) Thanks to Brian Whitmer, Barbara Fernandes, Nancy Inman, Deborah Lesher, Beth Erwin, Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Alison Wade,... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, core words, PrAACtically January
Know any AAC learners like these? Jeremiah has an SGD with thousands of core and fringe words, but he uses less than 100 of them in day-to-day life. Bella used an AAC app with visual scene displays to interact at playtime and during daily routines for the past several months. Her team just added an app with grid-based vocabulary so that she can begin to create novel sentences and expand her language abilities. Mason was recently evaluated for an AAC device, but it will likely take a few months to get the funding situation straightened out. In the meantime, his team created a manual communication board that mirrors the main screen of the SGD’s language software. Each of them need lots of practice to become fluent with the core words in their AAC systems. Are you looking for resources to support your use of core words in therapy, in the... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, core words, downloads, resources
Our Site of the Month addresses a topic relevant to many of you who serve AAC learners. The Project Core website is the public face of a research project looking at the use of an AAC intervention program that uses a consistent set of core vocabulary that grows with the learner over time. The multi-tiered system for augmenting language used in this project begins with extensive aided language input and explicit instruction of selected core words during meaningful interactions throughout the school day. This forms a foundation on which more specialized and individualized intervention and vocabulary selection is built. The project is part of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where the team has been developing a classroom-friendly intervention approach based on the System for Augmenting Language that was pioneered in the 1990s and continues to build an evidence base... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: CDLS, core vocabulary, core words, website
The summer is flying by here in Florida and we’re starting to think about heading back to school. Teachers, therapists, and aides play a pivotal role in helping AAC learners develop skills with core vocabulary so that they have a body of words that can be used across activities, environments, and communication partners. There are lots of ‘right’ ways to support these students. Among them is an instructional approach in which a new set of core words is introduced every few weeks in order to build their experiences with AAC. Our Year of Core Words materials has two versions, one from 2013 (12 words/month) and one from 2014 (16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words). If you’ve been following along, or are just getting started, these resources may be of interest. Set 1 (2013) Words: any, bring, day, fall, give, hot, job, know, other, sick, sorry, together Set 2... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core words, download, Year of Core Vocabulary
Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for awhile but doesn’t use it as frequently as her team had hoped. Hudson is transitioning from PECS to an AAC device with more robust language. While different in many ways, each of these learners has a common need: frequent opportunities to learn about and use core vocabulary. To accomplish this, their SLPs, teachers, and families select a dozen or so core words and pay special attention to those each month. That allows them to highlight this small group of words using focused language stimulation, aided language input, and specific activities designed to teach or practice them. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that. Set 1 (2013: A Year of Core) (12 words/month) Set 2 (2014: Another Year of Core) (16 words/month) In today’s post,... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Calendar, core words, download
In this week’s featured video, Susan Berkowitz, a California-based SLP with long-standing interests in AAC, shares prAACtical suggestions for how to incorporate core words during daily interactions and therapy activities. This short video is a great one to share with families or teams who need a little boost to increase their aided language input and create more communication opportunities for AAC learners. Direct link to video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPaSJ2mj_U
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: core words