April 5, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
We’re back with another post in our series focusing on supporting students to use AAC during their high school years. AAC SLP Ashley Larisey, an SLP at Community High School District 218 in Oak Lawn, Illinois, is here to discuss ways to support students who use AAC as they prepare to transition out of school. Ashley, who is also an Adjunct Clinical Supervisor and Instructor at Saint Xavier University, has some prAACtical suggestions that will be of interest to SLPs, OTs, teachers, and parents alike. Enjoy! 5 AACtionable Steps to Support the Transition Process Do you have a student on your caseload who uses AAC and will be aging out of special education services soon? This can be an incredibly exciting time, but it can also be full of feelings of uncertainty. Hopefully, we have put in a lot of time and effort into supporting AAC users, their families, and... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
April 4, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts you might enjoy. Monday – PrAACtically April – More AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Ethical Issues in AAC Thursday – 30 PrAACtical Ideas for Celebrating Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Friday – PráctiCAAmente Conectados Con Links Abril 2021 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: In recognition of Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, here are some autism-related posts to get you in the mood to celebrate those around us who have autism. Building Engagement in Young Students with Autism AACtual Therapy: Making Core Words Fun for Students with Autism Autism and AAC: 5 Pinterest Boards to Follow Evidence-based AAC Strategies for Students with Autism with Betsy Corporale An ABA Perspective on AAC for Students with Autism Before you go, enjoy the ABC’s of Autism support…
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
April 2, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
AAC friends, it’s time for another AAC Link Up in Spanish. If you have 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. But before we get to that, we want to continue sharing AAC experiences with families in different Spanish-speaking countries, to help us create ties and form AAC communities in Spanish, to learn from each other. In addition, this post features the words of Robinson Díaz, a Communications and Web Assistant from Chile who uses AAC. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: No dejes pasar la oportunidad de compartir tus links en español, para apoyar a la comunidad hispano hablante, que crece cada día en el campo de la CAA. Continuamos con nuestra serie de experiencias de... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
April 1, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for ways to celebrate Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month in ways that honor people with autism spectrum disorders? Here are a few suggestions. Get flappy with Julia and Abby from Sesame Street. Check out some new autistic YouTubers to follow. Focus on safety. Help families affected by autism take preventative action with this helpful kit. Attend, create, or volunteer at an event that is accepting of people with neurological differences. I’m a huge fan of The Friendship Journey and their Wings of Friendship Virtual Camp and Virtual Hangouts. Read autistic authors, like Alyssa Hillary Zisk, who also wrote a guest post here. You can get access to one of their recent works, AAC for Speaking Autistic Adults: Overview and Recommendations, co-authored with Elizabeth Dalton. Learn more about what makes a narrative a social story or comic book conversation as opposed to something else by reviewing the guidelines for sentence types... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD, autism acceptance month
March 30, 2021
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
March 29, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Whether you are a parent trying to keep your child’s AAC skills up or a professional who is providing AAC support, we hope that our monthly Year of Core Vocabulary posts help you stay focused and keep your learners using their AAC skills. In today’s post, we share some ideas for boosting core word learning throughout the week, focusing on a small set of words. Whether you are following along with the Set 1 (12 words/month) or the Set 2 words (16 words/month; Different than the previous core words), or are just getting started, this post has some helpful resources. Our words for this month are as follows. Set 1 List: big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who Set 2 List: blue, brother, close, family, head, last, long, no, old, right, scared, soft, thing, top, wash, whole We have some specific ideas for how to build a learning... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Vocabulary Words, core vocabulary
March 28, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that you might enjoy. Monday – How We Do It: Navigating Successful Post-Secondary Transitions in a Virtual World Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Developing & Using Communication Passports Thursday – School Year of Core Vocabulary Words: AAC Resources for Month 9 (April) by Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, & Beth Lytle ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for some resources to use in your AAC work? Check out some of those listed below. AAC 101 Flipbook Communication Partner Data Collection Form AAC Skills: Caught or Taught? AAC Modeling Handout Repairing Communication Breakdowns
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 25, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Before we turn the page on the calendar, here’s the April post in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words Series by guest authors Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, and Beth Lytle. This series focuses on a selected set of words to highlight for the month along with a suggested order in which to teach them. Therapists and teachers will appreciate the Activity Packets, containing suggestions for highlighting these words in a variety of activities. Their Data Collection Forms and tips on using shared reading in our AAC teaching are appropriate for AAC learners of various ages. If you are new to this series, you may want to review the introduction that our series authors created before delving into this month’s target words. You can see series overview here. You can also review the first 8 months of the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words using the links at the bottom... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary
March 23, 2021
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
March 22, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
AAC professionals can provide a great deal of support to help students prepare for post-school life. Today, guest authors Meredith Gohsman, Jamie Lawson, Heather Patton, and Melanie Melton team up to share their thoughts on helping students who use AAC move successfully toward this transition. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Speech-language pathologists, educators, and other AAC stakeholders all share responsibility in preparing students for successful post-secondary transition. The need to explicitly address post-secondary transition is well-established. Despite benefits of employment for both the employer and employee (McNaughton et al., 2002; McNaughton et al., 2003), individuals using AAC are unemployed at a staggering rate. For individuals using AAC, communication remains a vital component in the workplace (Bryen et al., 2007). Communication interactions and skills are associated with income, as well as job options (Mank et al., 1997; McNaughton & Bryen, 2007; McNaughton & Richardson, 2013). This includes all 5 communicative competencies: Linguistic Competence: Mastery of... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking