PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: How Do You Know It’s Summer? 

June 4, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts


PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: How Do You Know It’s Summer? 

Karen Natoci is back just in time for the end of school and the start of summer break. Karen is an AAC Supervisor with The Speech Pathology Group in Walnut Creek, California. In this post, she gets us thinking about summer and shares suggested extension activities for home and a lesson plan for how to implement these materials at the return of school after summer break. Be sure to download the packet of materials using the link at the bottom of this page. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Book:    How Do You Know It’s Summer?  (Rookie Read-About Science) by Lisa M. Herrington It’s time to wrap up the school year! In the northern hemisphere, we are looking forward to summer break or a more relaxed school schedule. This is a great book to kick off the final week of school and to send along summer homework in preparation for the first week of school.  The... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With: , ,

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #23: June 2018

June 3, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts


First swim of the season. A Brazilian BBQ. School is almost out for our K-12 friends. A bit of AAC writing. Finalizing our prep for this wonderful workshop. Busy week at your house, too? Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – On Memorial Day Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Social Skills at Home Thursday – Research Support for Aided Language Input If you have a little more time, you might want to browse some of these past posts. 5 AAC Downloads to Use & Share Downloadable AAC Posters PrAACtical Resources: AAC Activities to Download or Explore PrAACtical Collaboration: Teaming Up to Build Communication with a Treat Cart   If you’re local, take a look at this opportunity to learn from Dr. Caroline Musselwhite on teaching early reading and writing to learners of any age. You can use the scroll bar to explore or... [Read More...]

Filed under:

Research Support for Aided Language Input

May 31, 2018 by - 1 Comment


Research Support for Aided Language Input

Aided language input, the practice of modeling AAC when speaking to those who are trying to learn AAC, is a pivotal intervention strategy. It has been shown to support comprehension and expression, and the development of early sentence forms. The evidence suggests it may also support the development of certain grammatical morphemes and verb combinations.  You can learn more about the implementation of aided language input here. Here are some of the research studies that support the use of this evidence-based practice. Binger, C., & Light, J. (2007). The effect of aided AAC modeling on the expression of multi-symbol messages by preschoolers who use AAC. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 23, 30–43. Binger, C., Maguire-Marshall, M., & Kent-Walsh, J. (2011). Using aided AAC models, recasts and contrastive targets to teach grammatical morphemes to children who use AAC. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 54, 160–176.  Dada, S., & Alant, E. (2009). The... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With: , , ,

AAC Link Up – May 29

May 29, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts


AAC Link Up - May 29

It’s that time again! Once a week, we invite you to share your own AAC-related content so that others may learn from you and benefit from your efforts.  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. The AAC Link Up is moderated to keep us from being spammed, so it may take a little while for your link to show up. Note: If you receive this post in your email inbox, you are probably getting it before anyone has had a chance to add their links. Check back later... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With:

PrAACtically June: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words

May 24, 2018 by - 1 Comment


PrAACtically June

Here in the US, we’re preparing for a holiday weekend and getting 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. If you’re helping an AAC learner become more capable in using high-frequency words to express themselves, we hope you join us in highlighting the June words and creating opportunities for our AAC learners to use them throughout the day. Whether you are following along with the 2013 Year of Core  (Set 1-12 words/month) or the 2014 A(nother) Year of Core:  (Set 2-16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), or just getting started, here are some helpful resources. Our June words are listed below. Set 1 List: after, am/be/is, because, can, cold, fast, fun, have, hungry, let, need, talk Set... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With: , ,

AAC Link Up – May 22

May 22, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts


AAC Link Up - May 22

It’s that time again! Once a week, we invite you to share your own AAC-related content so that others may learn from you and benefit from your efforts.  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. The AAC Link Up is moderated to keep us from being spammed, so it may take a little while for your link to show up. Note: If you receive this post in your email inbox, you are probably getting it before anyone has had a chance to add their links. Check back later... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With:

Message and Voice Banking

May 21, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts


Message and Voice Banking

People with declining speech abilities may wish to preserve some aspects of their speech through voice banking, message banking, and/or digital legacies. These are strategies used to digitally record speech by people with degenerative conditions, such as ALS/MND, for later use once their speech abilities decline. You can learn more about each strategy here.   Voice Banking Voice banking is a strategy for creating a synthetic version of someone’s voice for later use on speech generating devices (SGD). It involves recording hundreds or thousands of sentences so that the computer can sample the person’s vocal qualities in different linguistic contexts and use that information to create a synthetic voice modeled after the person’s own speech. Options for Voice Banking include: Model Talker CereVoice Me VocalID My Own Voice Message Banking Message banking is a strategy for creating a pool of pre-recorded messages using a person’s natural speech while it is... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With: , , ,

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #21: May 2018

May 20, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts


AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #21: May 2018

Hello, Sunday! As AAC service providers, the work we do often keeps us too busy to do much reading. And so, we often use the weekends to catch up. If you’re in that mode today, check out our posts from last week. Monday: PrAACtical Resources: Lockdown, Code Red, & Other School Safety Drills Tuesday: AAC Link Up Wednesday: Video of the Week: AAC in Acute Care Thursday: Throwback Thursday: Extension Activities for AAC Practice Still have an appetite for some more AAC? Here are a few past posts to sink your teeth into. 3 Ways to Use AAC Goals to Strengthen AAC Intervention Using Visual Supports for Goal Setting Conversations PrAACtically Pinteresting with Lauren Enders: Writing AAC Goals Building Linguistic Competence in AAC Learners: 3 Areas to Consider Targeting Writing AAC Goals for Students Who Use AAC If you’re local, take a look at this opportunity to learn from Dr. Caroline Musselwhite on teaching early... [Read More...]

Filed under: ,

Tagged With: , , ,