February 20, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that you might enjoy. Monday – AAC Love: 5 Moments to Savor Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC Tips & Tricks That Aren’t Tricky Thursday – Throwback Thursday: Visual Supports & AAC ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Before you head off, take a look at some of these posts from the archives. Alphabet Books & AAC Implementation PrAACtical Guessing: 5 Apps for Interactive Inferencing Supporting Children in the Pediatric ICU 5+ Things to Do to Help AAC Learners Communicate About Illness or Injury “What’s Wrong?” AAC Messages for Negative Emotions and Feelings
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 17, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Visual supports are so flexible, easy to create and use, and have such a nice evidence base that it’s something we use in almost every AAC therapy or instructional session. In today’s Throwback Thursday, we’re revisiting five of our past posts on what they are, how to create them, and how they can be implemented. Enjoy! PrAACtically Visual: More Supports for Your Toolbox Visuals, Timers, & Zoom Addressing the Social, Communication, and Behavioral Needs of Secondary Students with ASD using Visual Supports AAC Teaching Tips on Scaffolding and Visual Supports 5 Visual Supports for Emotions and Feelings
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 15, 2022
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 course 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... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
February 14, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
On Valentine’s Day, our thoughts turn to love. Whether you’ve been doing this work for 3 months, 3 years, or 3 decades, there are some special moments in supporting people who use AAC that never lose their shine. Here are some of our favorites. Finding out that your client, student, or loved one is approved to get their first AAC device Overhearing someone you’ve trained tell another team member something positive about AAC Learning that your client or student who uses AAC advocated for themselves or got into ‘good trouble’ Being invited into a situation where the AAC user, family, school team, and private therapy providers are all pointed in the same direction Sharing happy tears with a family whose child just used their AAC system to say ‘I love you’ for the first time Joy, relief, a sense of accomplishment, gratitude, pride, excitement, self-efficacy…Today is a great day to... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 13, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Here are some posts that you may have missed in your busy week. Monday – Some Thoughts on Using the Terms ‘Nonverbal’ and ‘Nonspeaking’ Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Considerations in Switch Assessment Thursday – Throwback Thursday: AAC-friendly Resources for Black History Month ———————————————————————————————- Before you leave, here are a few more past posts to check out. Visual Supports for Places Around School (downloadable) Visual Supports for Places We Go (downloadable) AAC Intervention for Children with ASD Teaching Communication Partners Through Video Self-modeling Bilingual AAC Assessment Tips
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 10, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Here in the US, we’ve celebrated Black History Month each February for several decades. It’s a time for learning, reflection, and celebration. Today, we’re reprising a past post with resources that can be incorporated into your AAC teaching or therapy. Learn with BrainPop and BrainPop, Jr which offers videos, writing and drawing activities, graphic organizers, worksheets, jokes, and more. Brown vs Board of Education Civil Rights Fannie Lou Hamer Harriet Tubman Jackie Robinson Jim Crow Malcolm X Martin Luther King, Jr Mohammed Ali Reconstruction Rosa Parks Ruby Bridges Slavery Tuskegee Airmen From BrainPop Jr 2. Read “The Poet Diaries,” a guest post by inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. View a video of her reading her poem, Rise Up as One, California. 3. Explore a virtual exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 8, 2022
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 course 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... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
February 7, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Terminology has always been a challenge in the field of AAC, at least in English. Why does it take 14 syllables (“aug-men-ta-tive and al-ter-na-tive com-mu-ni-ca-tion”) to refer to a field that emerged to support individuals for whom speech is intensely problematic? I remember spirited discussions on what to call this work back when I was at Purdue University on an AAC doctoral fellowship, just after the birth of the International AAC Society (ISAAC) in 1983. When the US Society for AAC was started in 1991, those debates continued. The terms ‘nonvocal,’ ‘nonoral,’ ‘nonspeech,’ and ‘nonspeaking’ were used by many in the early days. Those terms eventually dwindled in popularity, primarily because so many children and adults who needed the support of AAC were able to talk and/or make sounds. Often, their speech was difficult to understand, slow and exhausting to produce, and limited in terms of conventional structures for expressing... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 6, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts you might enjoy. Monday – 3 Ways to Use Visual Schedules to Enhance AAC Learning Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC Do’s & Don’ts Thursday – Throwback Thursday: AAC-friendly Valentine’s Day Resources Friday – PráctiCAAmente Conectados Con Links – Febrero 2022 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: In the mood for a little more AAC reading? Here are some suggestions. Getting ready for a core vocabulary journey Make It Monday: Manual communication boards with core vocabulary Make It Monday: More words, please! Expanding our manual communication boards Super Size It: 5 ideas for making large communication boards Beyond requesting: A week of routines to increase AAC use at mealtimes 5 ways to build understanding Free resources for making AAC and visual supports 5 places for shared AAC materials
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 4, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
On the first Friday of every month, we feature a Spanish version of our AAC Link Up, CAA con Links. If you have AAC-related announcements, materials, or videos in Spanish that you would like others to know about, we’d love to have you add that information below. Also, please share this with anyone who might be interested in contributing to or using the materials that get added to these posts. You’ll find the place to add that information at the very bottom of this post. Organized by Claudia Marimón, these monthly posts also feature AAC work being done in Spanish-speaking countries. Today, she shares the story of Jorge Salfate, whose role as a father of a child with Angelman Syndrome inspired him to create a more welcoming hospital environment for all children. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Este mes los invitamos a compartir links en español, queremos comentar sobre la importancia del acceso a... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts