January 2, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
The new year brings hope and promise, something that the AAC community can always use a little more of. Here are some thoughts on strengthening our sustainability as AAC service providers as we embark on the upcoming year. View our role in AAC as a marathon, not a sprint. Supporting AAC learners can be an overwhelming experience and requires staying power. Pace yourselves, AAC friends. We have to be in it for the long haul, and that means we can’t use up all of our energy in the first leg of the journey. It’s okay to go home even though there’s more left to do. Remember the flight attendant’s advice: Put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. Keep learning. No matter how much you know about AAC, there is always more to learn. Whether it is reading journal articles to keep up with the latest research, viewing videos... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, new year, professional issues
December 31, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Ready to launch a brand new year? Let’s make it full of AAC goodness! In the meantime, here are a few posts from last week to catch up with. Monday: Happy Christmas! Wednesday: Top AAC Videos Thursday: PrAACtically January: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Looking for more to browse? Check out these previous posts for a little AAC inspiration. Teaching Peers About AAC A Classroom Journey with PODD Writing to Read It’s All About Us Magic Moments with Tellagami
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: summary post
December 28, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
As we wrap up another prAACtical year, we’re gearing up to model and teach some more core words to our AAC learners. If you have some prep time this week, join us! This is a great time to get the word cards and other materials for the Year of Words (Set 1; Set 2) ready to use with the AAC learners in our lives. Thanks to the generous spirit of PrAACtical AAC readers we have posts with a variety of resources: Templates for you to plug in your own symbols: Set 1 words, Set 2 words Minspeak/Unity version: Set 1 PCS versions: Set 1, Set 2 Speak for Yourself version: Set 2 SymbolStix version: Set 1 Lesson Pix: Set 1 Smarty Symbols: Set 1 words, Set 2 words CoughDrop: Set 1 words; Set 2 words WordPower: Set 1 words (Note: This is a large file that contains the resources for several versions of... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, Another Year of Core Words, Calendar, download
December 25, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Wishing you all the spirit of this beautiful season!
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
December 21, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
It’s almost Christmas and if you still have a little singing energy, here’s a little song for to fill up your AAC stocking. Happy holidays to all, near and far. You can download a printable version here.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: holiday, sing
December 18, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
What’s better that modeling AAC? Doing it with a pal, of course! In this post, we hear from special education teacher Carissa Thompson and SLP Hannah Sellers who work at Princeton House Charter School (PHCS) where they serve students with autism spectrum disorder. Both work with students who use a variety of AAC to communicate and access their curricula. PHCS uses a daily integrated language therapy model which allows for increased opportunities to collaborate with teachers and to organically meet the communication needs of their students. Today, Hannah and Carissa share ways in which they team up to provide AAC supports with a fun twist. AAC & Autism: Making Core Words Fun with Bluebee Pals In this post, we would like to introduce you to a recently discovered therapy and classroom tool that has made core words fun for our students! Meet Bluebee Pals Bluebee Pals are a group of... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
December 17, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Busy with end-of-semester paperwork and holiday preparations? Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtical Resources: Communication Supports Inventory for Children and Youth Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC, ASD, & Individual Differences Thursday – PrAACtical Collaboration: Teaming Up to Build Communication with a Treat Cart (Part 2) If you’re in the mood to check out some other posts, take a look at some of the past posts on AAC in the family. Family Collaboration by Dr. Barry Prizant From Presence to Contribution – A Family’s Journey Towards an Inclusive Life AAC at Home Connecting with Caregivers to Support AAC Learning: 3 Things to Try PrAACtical Families: 5 Grants That Support AAC
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: summary post
December 14, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Today, we hear more from Colorad0-based SLP Kimberly Walker who explains more about how they use the Treat Cart activity to support the communicative development of her students with AAC needs. You can see the first part of her post here. ——————————————————— The Treat Cart has made our co-treating planning so simple. The first Thursday of the month we take inventory to see what things we need to buy to restock our cart. We have done this by making a graph with paper and also doing an actual object graph with the products and sticky notes to simulate the products gone. We target the language of more and less and also work on making a list to take to the store. On the second Thursday of the month, we work on identifying environmental print of the products we are selling and practice selling to each other targeting the skills in... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC activities, classroom, education, school
December 11, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
As AAC practitioners well know, children who use some form of augmentative communication need a wide array of supports in order to be successful. In this post, we share a useful tool to systematically gather information about those supports to help teams with educational planning. Developed by Drs. Charity Rowland and Melanie Fried-Oken and Ms. Sandra Steiner, The Communication Supports Inventory – Children & Youth (CSI-CY) is designed to make goal writing easier for teachers and SLPs who work with students who have AAC needs. It is a wonderful way to build collaboration and get the team pointed in the same direction. Learn more about the CSI- CY here. You can access it online or download it for a hard copy.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, assessment tools, classroom, downloads, education, school
December 10, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Baking, shopping, wrapping. Grading, report-writing. Ugly sweaters, Secret Santas, Elf on a Shelf, Mensch on a Bench. December is zooming by. If you missed a few posts, we get it. Put your feet up, take a breath, and click away! Monday – PrAACtical Research: AAC Intervention for Children with ASD Wednesday – Video of the Week: Parent’s Guide to AAC Assessment Thursday – PrAACtical Collaboration: Teaming Up to Build Communication with a Treat Cart (Part 1) Saturday – When Disaster Strikes: USSAAC’s Response to Families with AAC Needs Still in the AAC mood? Here’s a sampling of previous posts on cooking and AAC for your browsing pleasure. PrAACtical Supports for Older Learners: AT Recipes for Success, Part 5 – Let’s Cook! How I Do It: Cooking in the Classroom with Carol Goossens’ Literacy: Cookies & Core AACtual Therapy with Deanna Wagner: Why Cook When You Can’t Eat? PrAACtical Peek: Decorating Cookies
Filed under: Featured Posts
Tagged With: cooking, summary post