Tag Archive: visual supports

Video of the Week: Using Structure to Support Participation

February 15, 2017 by - 1 Comment

Video of the Week: Using Structure to Support Participation

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Sally SLP planned an adorable craft activity, but her students with autism and AAC needs just didn’t take to it. Tara Teacher brought out some age-respectful stickers to decorate cards, but several of the students stopped after placing just one sticker and got frustrated when encouraged to add more. Olivia OT pushed into the classroom as they were painting hearts to help with fine motor skill development, but some of the kids resisted doing anything more than a few brush strokes. Sound familiar? Art activities offer great potential for communication learning and practice, but they aren’t always preferred activities for some of our AAC students. There can be several good reasons for that, but a common problem is that the activity itself may be too open-ended. Some of our students do best with activities that have a clear beginning and ending. Open-ended activities, like many of... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Designing & Using Visual Supports for Older Students

February 8, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Designing & Using Visual Supports for Older Students

Chances are, you are already using visual supports with your AAC learners. If they aren’t as effective as you imagined they would be, or if you need ideas for how to make them more appropriate for middle and high school students, this video is worth watching. Karine Gleason helps us learn more about making age respectful visual boundaries, cues, and schedules, and gives us tips for fine-tuning our implementation. Many thanks to TASN and the Tri-State Autism Spectrum Disorder Network for making and sharing this video.

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AAC and Visual Supports for Storms and Hurricanes: 10 Useful Resources

October 5, 2016 by - 1 Comment

AAC and Visual Supports for Storms and Hurricanes: 10 Useful Resources

With Hurricane Matthew bearing down on us, we began thinking about ways to support people with significant communication challenges. Here are a few resources that you might find helpful. Hurricane Matthew is Coming! by UCF CARD It is Hurricane Season by Autism Educators  Hurricane Preparation by Mary Grace Hektner via Boardmaker Online (need Boardmaker to use)  What Is A Hurricane? by Mary Grace Hektner via Boardmaker Online (need Boardmaker to use)  Tornado Vocabulary by Mary Grace Hektner via Boardmaker Online (need Boardmaker to use)  Storm Social Narrative by Sandy K via Boardmaker Online (need Boardmaker to use)  Making a Thunder Box from the Practially Speeching blog Webinar on Disaster Preparedness for People with Complex Communication Needs by AAC RERC  Emergency Preparedness for Children with Autism from the Preparedness Mama Emergency Communication Board by Temple University Institute on Disabilities English  Spanish  Haitian Creole  Stay safe out there!

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Video of the Week: Implementing Visual Supports

January 14, 2016 by - 2 Comments

Today, we return to The Watson Institute for information on the implementation of visual supports. Their style of creating brief video explanations focused on specific strategies makes these clips perfect for sharing with colleagues and families. Visual Support    Power of Pairing: Reinforcers with Visual Supports Build Your Own Schedule: A Structured Choice Strategy You can browse through previous posts featuring the work from this fine team here.

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Tri-Fold Love: 5 Visual Supports for AAC Learners

December 21, 2015 by - Leave your thoughts

Tri-Fold Love: 5 Visual Supports for AAC Learners

Tri-folds are visual displays that are folded in thirds to make a triangular shaped display that can sit on a desk or table top. Like any other visual support, they can be created to suit a variety of purposes. We love them having these visual reminders out and available for quick use. Here are some we found on the amazing sharing site for Boardmaker Online that you may want to check out. First-Then Tri-fold by Alissa Plaisance  Story Grammar Marker by Marcia Piersall  Picture Schedules by Stephanie Besio: Side One has symbols for the individual activities. Side Two has ‘finished’ symbols that can be folded over each activity symbol when that task is completed.  Work First, Then Play by Clavelle  Behavior support by TASN Autism and Tertiary Behavior Supports Do you use this format for visual support with some of the AAC learners in your life? We’d love to hear... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Visual Supports on the Fly

October 28, 2015 by - 2 Comments

Video of the Week: Visual Supports on the Fly

For several years, we’ve written many posts on the use of visual supports with AAC learners. One thing we haven’t talked about, though, is what to do when you’re in the midst of therapy or a lesson, and the need for an additional visual support arises. In this week’s featured video, SLP Shannon Hennig does an amazing job of explaining how she improvises to make visual supports on the fly. Like you, I appreciate the plethora of visual supports that have been appearing on Teachers Pay Teachers, SLP blogs, materials exchange sites, and Pinterest. Most of them are just adorable, some of them are well-designed, and all of them make using visual supports more convenient for busy professionals and families. In the end, though, the best visual supports are the ones that meet the needs of the situations. And, while we do our best to predict what will be needed... [Read More...]

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5 Thoughts on Using Scripts in AAC Therapy

September 7, 2015 by - 3 Comments

5 Thoughts on Using Scripts in AAC Therapy

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...]

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How I Do It: The All-in-One-Visual-Support Tool by Tabi Jones-Wohleber

May 14, 2015 by - 11 Comments

How I Do It: The All-in-One-Visual-Support Tool by Tabi Jones-Wohleber

I am constantly in awe of the creativity and generosity of AAC practitioners, particularly those like Tabi Jones-Wohleber who make fabulous materials and share them with colleagues that they’ve never even met. Tabi is an SLP on the AT Team for Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland.  A graduate of Penn State University, her career has focused on AAC.  Though she works with many schools and addresses a variety of AT needs, most of her time and creative energy is devoted to working with students with the most significant disabilities.  In this post, she introduces us to the All-in-One-Visual-Support Tool. You wont want to miss Tabi’s treasure trove of prAACtical materials. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  It was a conversation I’d had many times before.  A conversation that kept resurfacing in one form or another.  It’s the conversation of how to manage all the stuff; all the visuals, all the reinforcers, all the communication tools.  The benefit of visual supports to... [Read More...]

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From Solitary Play to Interaction: 5 Things to Try With Kids Who Love Their iPad Games

April 21, 2015 by - Leave your thoughts

“But my kid wants to use the app on his own terms, not with ME!” Ever faced this conundrum? There are so many wonderful apps that are terrific for building interaction and language skills, but some of our prAACtical friends don’t want us to interact with them during iPad play**. Today, we’re thinking about strategies to use when kids would rather engage in solitary play as opposed to welcoming us as interaction partners in their iPad games. How can we help them increase their tolerance for interaction when playing on the iPad? Here are a few things to try. Make expectations clear with visual supports. It’s hard to cooperate when you don’t have an understanding of what’s supposed to happen. When kids are used to playing games, reading books, or watching videos on their own, they sometimes resist our participation out of the fear that they won’t get to do... [Read More...]

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Let’s Read: Getting to the Core of Earth Day

April 13, 2015 by - Leave your thoughts

Let’s Read: Getting to the Core of Earth Day

Core Words for the Month (2013 List): big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who By definition, core words are useful in any situation, with any topic and any communication partner. They are the perfect words for Earth Day because they are words that they we re-use and recycle. Even though it is a very minor holiday (at least in the US), most schools do a lot of thematic work around the topic, both because it ties in so beautifully with science education, but also because all kids seem to have a connection with and curiosity about the natural world. Before we knew better, SLPs would spend lots of time programming specific vocabulary into the learner’s AAC device. (I’m guilty as charged and can still remember trying to find symbols for things like trash compactor and pollution.) For learners who have good command of core vocabulary, we... [Read More...]

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