Tag Archive: therapy

Throwback Thursday: Engaging AACtivities for AAC Learning

January 10, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Throwback Thursday: Engaging AACtivities for AAC Learning

Today we’re digging through the archives and revisiting some posts on activities that your AAC learners may find engaging. Enjoy! Teaming Up to Build Communication with a Treat Cart: Part 1, Part 2 AACtual Therapy: Use Your Best Spud to Teach Vocabulary With Tanna Neufeld PrAACtical Supports for AAC Learners: AT Recipes for Success – Sensorimotor Activities AAC Intervention: 5 Activities with PrAACtical Potential Vocabulary Activities: 5 Sites for Learning with Avatars PrAACtical Teaching in the Autism Classroom: Instructional Activities for Core Vocabulary Why We Love AAC Language Experience Activities

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10 Tips for Starting AAC Therapy with Little Ones

January 16, 2018 by - 6 Comments

10 Tips for Starting AAC Therapy with Little Ones

It’s exciting to see so many graduate student SLPs and new graduates who are interested in working with people with AAC needs. We hear from them frequently with questions about how to be effective in their therapy and the practical aspects of running a good therapy session. Here are some tips we frequently share with those who are starting to implement AAC with young children. Use a visual schedule for every session. The operative word there is ‘use.’ Making a schedule for our therapy is a great start, but unless we really use the schedule all throughout the session, it’s unlikely to provide many benefits. Go to it as soon as you get into the room, AND before and after every activity. (For those who are interested, there is more on making and effectively implementing visual schedules here. Trust the process. You will need to do this at least 4-8... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Real Life AAC

September 6, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Real Life AAC

Throughout the world, teachers, therapists, and parents are busy doing the real work of AAC. Making sure AAC materials are available all day long. Modeling language with SGDs, apps, and communication boards. Let’s take a peek into their classrooms, therapy rooms, and homes. Macomb Intermediate Schools   Shared Reading   Shared Reading with the Comment-Ask-Respond Strategy   Sentences After School Pop-up Pirate    

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Video of the Week: AACtual Therapy Using Pre-stored Messages

August 3, 2016 by - 3 Comments

In the past few years, we’ve written a lot about the value of AAC systems that are rich in single core vocabulary words. Our position has always been, however, that many users of AAC will also benefit from fringe vocabulary words and selected prestored messages. You can read more about that here. To be sure, pre-stored messages, including phrases, sentences, and full questions, have their drawbacks. The main downside relates to the lack of flexibility they offer. Once programmed into a device, the communicator has to use them just the way they are. If he/she wants to say a variation of that message, they are out of luck. In the context of a robust system, however, this isn’t as problematic as it sounds. Individuals who have been provided with robust AAC systems can go to their single word vocabulary to be more precise if the pre-stored message doesn’t capture exactly... [Read More...]

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5 Ways to Use PowerPoint in AAC Intervention

April 30, 2013 by - 2 Comments

5 Ways to Use PowerPoint in AAC Intervention

We know that there are lots of PowerPoint haters out there, but we’re not among them. While we have certainly suffered through a presentation or two in which it was used poorly, we’ve also been inspired by those who use it well. It has lots of uses beyond teaching and presentation. Here are some ideas for using it to enhance your AAC intervention. 1. Personal Dictionary: Create a dictionary with slides for the new words the individual is learning. You can record the pronunciation of the word, provide the definitions, give examples, illustrate with images, and link to external sites. 2. Switch-accessible Books: These are fun to make and positively addictive once you get started! In the AAC Literacy Camp we did a few years ago, we made lots of little books like the one shown here and printed hard copies for the kids to take home. Reading online is... [Read More...]

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PrAACtical Ways to Make Decisions about Thematic Therapy Materials, Part 1

January 2, 2013 by - 3 Comments

PrAACtical Ways to Make Decisions about Thematic Therapy Materials, Part 1

Is it just us, or have other people been blown away by the number of SLPs sharing therapy materials that they’ve designed? It seems like every time we visit sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and TeachersPayTeachers, there are more SLPs posting things that they’ve made. Most of them are incredibly adorable, reasonably priced, and even free. Many are based around a particular theme, such as a holiday or season, or a conceptual theme, such as pirates, the circus, or outer space. We love the cute graphics and fun fonts, and bet that many of you do, too. Cuteness and the ‘fun factor’ are compelling, but which ones are a good fit for your AAC therapy? In this post, we want to open a conversation with prAACtical thoughts about making solid clinical decisions when choosing therapy materials. I’ll be sharing some things that can be helpful when working with kids who have... [Read More...]

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Communicating About Communicating

September 3, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Communicating about Communicating

Last week I was talking to a bright, young professional who is starting her second year as a school-based SLP. She has a caseload of 60+ students, including a class of students who have significant communication impairments. When the conversation turned to building a support system for her students who use AAC, we talked about strategies for keeping all of the stakeholders in the loop.  Here are some of the the things we touched on.

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