June 25, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Know anyone who has access to AAC tools but doesn’t yet use them throughout the day? Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for awhile but doesn’t use it as frequently as her team had hoped. Hudson is transitioning from PECS to an AAC device with more robust language. While different in many ways, each of these learners has a common need: frequent opportunities to learn about and use core vocabulary. To accomplish this, their SLPs, teachers, and families select a dozen or so core words and pay special attention to those each month. That allows them to highlight this small group of words using focused language stimulation, aided language input, and specific activities designed to teach or practice them. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that. Set 1 (A... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Another Year of Core Words, Year of Core Words
June 24, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Hello, AAC friends! Hope your week went well. Here’s what we’ve been up to… Monday – 5 Ways to Use Books to Build Interaction with AAC Learners Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Be More with Core Thursday – PrAACtical Resources: Eye Gaze Set-up and Software :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Still hungry for a little more AAC? Here are a few tasty morsels to explore. When Students are Reluctant Communicators: 5 Things to Try Build Friendship Skills with Peer-A-Mids A Recipe for Friendship On Friendship: Supporting AAC Learners AAC Goes to Summer Camp ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: Friends, summary post
June 21, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Working with people are beginning to use eye gaze for communication? If so, you may be interested in these helpful guides from CALL Scotland. Enjoy! Eye Gaze Software Eye Gaze Set-up
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: CALL Scotland, eye gaze
June 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for more ways to build AAC skills? Book reading can be incorporated into therapy sessions and instructional lessons, as well as part of the daily routine at home. Here are some ideas for using books to support AAC and language learning. Choosing a book: In most cases, we want the AAC learner to have the autonomy to choose a book. However, we can make this part of the AAC learning process by teaching the skill of choosing something to read and talking about it before the learner makes his/her choice. Goal Areas: We can use this time to build basic turn-taking skills, requesting, sentence-building, and new vocabulary, among other things. It’s also a great opportunity to develop more advanced syntax using words like ‘since’ and ‘because’ (e.g., “I want to read about sport because it is World Cup time.”) and various sentence structures (e.g., “First, let’s read a sports... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Books, reading
June 17, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. We’re celebrating Father’s Day here in the US but if you have time to catch up on a little AAC, you might be interested in a few of our posts from last week. Monday – AAC Assessment Corner with Vicki Clarke: Evaluating Skills For Use of Comprehensive AAC Systems, Part 2: Language Representation Elements – Noun Symbol Use for Functional Communication Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC in Emergency Situations – Tales from the Trenches Thursday – PrAACtical Resources: Core Vocabulary Flipbook for June Words :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We spent part of the week with Dr. Caroline Musselwhite who shared some wonderful ideas for teaching emergent to early conventional literacy skills. Her terrific workshop got us in the mood for a little more on AAC, reading, and writing. Using an Alphabet Flipbook for Writing Writing Instruction for Students with Angelman Syndrome Robust Literacy Instruction for... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: reading, summary post, writing
June 14, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for ways to help the team remember to model and elicit core words? Visual supports work for adults, too! This handy flipbook has sentence suggestions for the June Year of Core Vocabulary words, but you can use it with any AAC system that has core vocabulary. Print in black and white on plain paper or choose some brightly colored cardstock to give it a pop. You can download the file here.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, download, flipbook
June 12, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Tuesdays are for sharing! 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. Enter the URL and the name/title in the boxes provided below. 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... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: AAC Link Up
June 11, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Vicki Clarke, CEO of Dynamic Therapy Associates and Director of DTA Schools, is back with another wonderful edition of AAC Assessment Corner. In addition to their clinic, Vicki and her team support school districts in AAC evaluation, equipment procurement, and implementation for individual students in the academic environment. DTA Schools also supports district-wide AAC implementation through the Classroom Communication Goals Project, training, and supporting all team members in classroom AAC implementation. In today’s post, Vicki shares her thoughts on how we can look at the use of AAC symbols for nouns as part of our evaluations for comprehensive AAC systems. You can view her previous contributions to the AAC Assessment Corner here. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Evaluating Skills For Use of Comprehensive AAC Systems, Part 2: Language Representation Elements – Noun Symbol Use for Functional Communication It was a crazy, busy month full of evaluations, trainings, and report writing. I’ve spent a lot of time with... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, beginning communicator, Vicki Clarke
June 10, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Before you start the work week, take a look at some of our posts from the week. Monday – PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: How Do You Know It’s Summer? Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AT for Writing Thursday – PrAACtical Resources: AAC Tag Still have time for a little more AAC? Here are some past posts to browse. AAC in the High School Classroom: Where Core Vocabulary Meets Life Skills PrAACtical Teaching in the ASD Classroom: Shared Reading AAC in the Classroom: Presentations You May Have Missed Developing AAC Policies for Schools Cooking in the Classroom with Carol Goossens’
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: classroom, school, summary post
June 7, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to share a little bit of information about a client’s AAC device, this card may come in handy. The file is editable so that you can customize it to meet your needs. You can download it here.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: downloads, partner instructions