February 11, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. It’s prAACtically Valentine’s Day and a perfect time to show some AAC love where you work, live, or play. While you’re at it, check out our posts from this week. Monday – PrAACtically Valentine’s Day: 5 Activity Ideas for AAC Learning Wednesday – Video of the Week: Supporting Leadership Development in People Who Use AAC Thursday – Resources to Review from the #ATIA2018 Conference Ready for more to explore? Here are a few past posts for you to peruse. PrAACtically Valentine’s Day: Core Vocabulary Activities 14 Valentine’s Day Activities: Love, Literacy, & Learning 4 Things to Consider When Embracing a “New Normal” Using Structure to Support Participation Core Vocabulary: Making Sense of Symbols
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: summary post
February 8, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Last week’s ATIA Conference in Orlando was packed with AAC energy, excitement about tools, and enthusiasm for learning ways in which professionals are supporting AAC learners at home, in school, and in the community. We’ll be sharing takeaways from that event over the next few weeks. Here are a couple of resources and handouts on access, professional development, and accessibility to get you started. The Access Learning Process (ALP) for AAC introduced a wonderful framework for supporting AAC learners who use alternative access. Power Up Your Professional Development with AT Focused Social Media Creating Inclusive Classrooms with Microsoft Accessibility Did you attend a session or learn about an AAC resource that needs to be shared? We’d love to hear about it.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: accessibility, alternative access, ATIA
February 5, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
The novelty of a holiday creates the opportunity for fun and motivating activities that we can use to teach and practice language, literacy, and AAC skills. If you’re looking for a few more Valentine’s Day activities, we have some ideas for you to explore. Core Words to Target Pronouns: I, you, it, we Action verbs: do, go, give, get, help, know, like, open, read, see, take, want Phrasal verbs: put in/on, take out Locatives: here, there Modifiers: bad, big, fun, good, little, more, some Social words: hi, thank you Determiners: this, these Interrogatives: how, what, who, where Activity-specific Words to Target Colors, shapes People: boy, girl, child, teacher Verbs: paint, squeeze, write Descriptors: nice, smelly, squishy, sticky Nouns: marker, orange (fruit), paint Activity Suggestions Do some Heart Stamping Get gooey while making and playing with Valentine Slime Read a book about kindness like The Nice Book, The Invisible Boy, or Somebody... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC activities, Valentine's Day
January 29, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
As prepare to bid January a fond farewell, we’re looking ahead to ways we can highlight more of the core vocabulary words in our clients’ AAC devices and communication aids. One approach to boosting practice opportunities is to select a dozen or so core words to focus on each month. Throughout the month, we can then pay special attention to that small group of words by highlighting them with focused language stimulation, aided language input, and specific activities designed to teach or practice those words. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that and every month we share some ideas for prioritizing a small set of words. You can use these materials to remind yourself which words to highlight this month, with using aided language input and focused language stimulation. What else? Here are some ideas to get you started. Print them and... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, downloads, resources
January 25, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Reading together with AAC learners can be a great activity for building engagement, language, and literacy skills. Like any other activity, though, it won’t be very helpful in doing that unless we use effective strategies. Today, we share an online module that will help with the basics of interactive book reading. Part of Project CONNECT, The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge, which offers full courses for a fee and a limited set of modules (like the one we are sharing today) at no charge. This is a great starting place for anyone looking to better understand how to use shared reading as a way to build communication skills. From there, we can guide families, paraprofessionals, and professionals who work with AAC learners to utilize additional strategies, such as aided language input and descriptive talking, to support those who use some form of augmentative communication. Enjoy learning more about Dialogic... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: shared reading, teaching strategies
January 22, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Whether you are working with a traditional SGD or an AAC app, chances are, you want to print a ‘no tech’ version for modeling and/or as a backup communication aid. We’ve shared printable communication boards and books on many previous occasions but here are links to some of the ones that are requested most frequently. Proloquo2Go Crescendo (English, Spanish, French, & Dutch) Snap + Core First (multiple sizes/layouts) and editable copies via Boardmaker Online LAMP Words for Life WordPower (many versions: regular and poster; some Spanish) Unity (with free PASS software) Speak for Yourself Core Samples Do you print and use other manual communication boards or posters? We’d love to hear about that.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC apps, downloads, printable, SGDs
January 21, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Looking for tips to hone your AAC therapy and instruction? We shaerd quite a few on the blog this week. Monday – 10 Tips for Starting AAC Therapy with Little Ones Wednesday – Video of the Week: Supporting Emergent AAC Learners in Inclusive Education Through Descriptive Teaching Thursday – Building Linguistic Competence in AAC Learners: 3 Areas to Consider Targeting And if you are thirsty for more, check out some past posts on activities and materials for AAC therapy and instruction. Magic Moments with Verb Circus PrAACtical Ways to Make Decisions about Thematic Therapy Materials Why We Love AAC Language Experience Activities Vocabulary Activities: 5 Sites About Learning with Avatars AAC Intervention: 5 Activities with PrAACtical Potential
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January 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
For several years, those who specialize in supporting AAC learners have stressed the need to develop AAC systems and programming that go beyond the communicative function of requesting in order to target the ability to protest, reject, comment, etc. This has been an important trend that will empower users of AAC to express themselves in much fuller ways. What other things should we be targeting in order to help our clients and students become more linguistically competent? Here are some ideas for goal areas to consider. Temporal Markers: While no one can overstate the importance of talking about our current needs, interests, observations, and preferences, we have to be careful not to get stuck in the moment. It is also important for our AAC learners to develop the language skills to be able to talk about things that already happened or that will/might be happening. Why? Among other things, this... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: goal setting, goals, language development, language goals, language intervention
January 16, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC implementation, early intervention, preschool, therapy
January 14, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
It’s been a busy week of classes and conferences. Here are some AAC posts you might have missed. Monday: PrAACtical Resources: AT and Transition Planning Wednesday: Video of the Week – Using Evidence to Improve our Professional Development Thursday: It’s PrAACtically Martin Luther King Jr Day And if you need a few more posts to browse, here are some suggestions. AAC in the ASD Classroom: Predictable Chart Writing with Core Vocabulary Supporting AAC Learners in Emergent Writing: 5 Helpful Resources Shared Writing and AAC PrAACtical Resources for Writing Notes to Send Home Using an Alphabet Flipbook for Writing
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Tagged With: summary post