April 14, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Good morning, AAC friends. Here are the posts we published this week. Monday – AACtivity of the Month: Concept Sorts Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Strategies for Supporting AAC Team Buy-In & Implementation Thursday – How I do it: Using Videos & Instructional Feedback to Support Communication Partners ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Have time for a little more browsing? Check out these past posts. When Helping Isn’t Helping-Prompt Awareness in AAC Instruction Administratively Speaking: 5 Considerations for Recruiting and Retaining AAC SLPs AAC In the Classroom: Considerations for Modeling Core Vocabulary How I Do It: A Year of Core Word in Action AAC in the High School Classroom: Where Core Vocabulary Meets Life Skills
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: classroom, modeling, prompting, summary week
April 11, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
As AAC interventionists well know, we can improve learning outcomes by getting key communication partners to use specific strategies to support AAC learning. How can we do that effectively and efficiently? Today, we hear from Laura Hayes, an AAC Facilitator for Special School District of St. Louis County, Missouri. Using her 10+ years of AAC experience, Laura provides support to staff and students across 4 school districts. She has presented locally and at state, national, and international conferences, and has been involved in both inpatient pediatric and educational AAC research. Laura loves providing staff training, implementation resources and guided direction to help students using AAC succeed. In today’s guest post, she shares her experiences and tips for supporting communication partners. (Don’t forget to download the resources she is sharing before you go.) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: How I do it: Using Videos and Instructional Feedback to Support Communication Partners Prior to the Training... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC partner training, classroom, school
April 9, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Tuesday, AAC friends! Once a week, we invite you to share your own AAC-related content, product news, or anything else that you’d like others in the AAC community to know about. It may be a recent post you’ve written, a slide deck from your AAC presentation, a handout, video, or meme that you’ve posted online, an AAC product you’ve created, an announcement for an AAC camp or conference, or any other prAACtical content you developed and want to share with the AAC community. To post your own link, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post and complete the form. Enter the URL and the name/title in the boxes provided below. If you are on a mobile device, click over to the full website version to do this. The AAC Link Up is moderated to keep us from being spammed, so it may take a little while... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
Tagged With: AAC Link Up
April 8, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Concept Sorts (learn more here) are often used in vocabulary intervention and academic instruction. Chances are, you’re probably using them already with some of your learners. These easy-to-implement activities can be helpful in teaching AAC as well. There are lots of right ways to do a concept sort. Here is one of them. Select a target word. Print out 2 copies of the AAC symbol for it, and the symbol for No/Not as it appears in the learner’s AAC system. Use these to create a simple 2-column sorting system (e.g., 2 shallow boxes, one with the target word symbol and the other with No/Not + target symbols). Gather a collection of objects or pictures that depict or are related to the target word. Gather a collection of objects or pictures that depict the opposite of the target word or show something completely unrelated. Put the objects or pictures to be... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: semantic instruction, vocabulary intervention
April 7, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Monday – 30 Ideas for Celebrating Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Compliance Is Not the Goal Thursday – How I Do It: Understanding Systems Change :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: If you have time, stick around for a bit more AAC reading. Building Engagement in Young Children with Autism Autism and AAC: 5 Pinterest Boards to Follow AACtual Therapy: Making Core Words Fun for Students with Autism How I Do It: Using PODD books and Aided Language Displays with Young Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder Evidence-based AAC Strategies for Students with Autism with Betsy Caporale
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD
April 4, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Have you ever dreamed of taking a detour in your AAC work to address the needs from a totally different direction? Special educator Sarah Mueller did just that. Follow along as she tells us about her journey from teacher to student. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Autism isn’t something a person has or a ‘shell’ that a person is trapped inside. There’s no normal child hidden behind the autism. Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not possible to separate the autism from the person – and if it were possible, the person you’d have left would not be the same person you started with. This is important, so take a moment to consider it: Autism is a way of being. It is not possible to separate the person from the autism.” – Jim Sinclair... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, legislation, policy
April 2, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Tuesday, AAC friends! Once a week, we invite you to share your own AAC-related content, product news, or anything else that you’d like others in the AAC community to know about. It may be a recent post you’ve written, a slide deck from your AAC presentation, a handout, video, or meme that you’ve posted online, an AAC product you’ve created, an announcement for an AAC camp or conference, or any other prAACtical content you developed and want to share with the AAC community. To post your own link, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post and complete the form. Enter the URL and the name/title in the boxes provided below. If you are on a mobile device, click over to the full website version to do this. The AAC Link Up is moderated to keep us from being spammed, so it may take a little while... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
April 1, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
What does Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month mean to you? From where I sit, it is a personal challenge to learn more about the lived experiences of autistic people and discover the most impactful ways to support communication learning and quality of life. Our understanding of what autism is and how we can help autistic people have a rich, fulfilling, self-directed lives is evolving. Even if you’ve worked with autistic people for a long time, chances are that there are still many more things to learn. Here are some ideas for things to do in honor of people with autism. Take advantage of the deep discounts offered by many AAC app developers and share this information with those who might benefit from it. AAC Specialist and SLP Lauren Enders does a wonderful service to the AAC community by tracking the app discounts in the US app store and sharing that... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD, Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, self-advocacy
March 31, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Can you believe March is almost over?! We’ll have lots to share for Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some posts from our prAACtical week. Monday – PrAACtically April: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Moving Beyond Single Words with AAC Thursday – When Materials Aren’t Effective in AAC Teaching: 5 Things to Try :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Have a little more time? Here are a couple of additional posts that you might find interesting. Let’s Read! Getting to the Core of Earth Day Let’s Create! Getting to the Core of Earth Day Let’s Go Outside: 5 PrAACtical Ideas Implementing Object-based Schedules in the Classroom Activity Schedule AACtion
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, implementation ideas, Language Learning, schedules
March 28, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Eva doesn’t seem to be interested in any of the books or playthings her SLP typically uses, and reinforcer preference testing was inconclusive. Zach tends to grab the teacher’s materials and put them in his mouth, or sometimes bang them on a hard surface. Bryce often engages with them for a few seconds then drops or throws them. Do you work with students like these? They have lots of AAC learning ahead of them, but creating therapy sessions or instructional lessons is a challenge because of the ways in which they interact with the materials. For some students, keeping the number of materials to a minimum can be helpful. Here are a few things to try. Create activities where the focus is on movement rather than on materials. Create a simple movement game or make up your own version of a childhood classic (e.g., Red Light, Green Light) that... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: communication opportunities, implementation ideas, play