March 18, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
More frequent flooding, longer and deadlier fire seasons, increasingly intense hurricanes and other storms, the threat of earthquakes and tsunamis, powerful tornadoes. We’ve all seen reports that severe weather events are on the rise and too many have had personal experience with this. But, for many of us, the idea of preparing for the possibility of a major event that would disrupt access to AAC supports is ‘the good idea that we never get around to implementing.’ How well would the AAC users in your life cope if they had to quickly evacuate to a shelter or even shelter in place without power or water for an extended period of time? Would they have a way to communicate with unfamiliar partners if they became separated from caregivers? Would they have their essentials, such as medication, g-tube or catheter supplies, and adaptive feeding equipment? Would they be able to access back-ups... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: emergency preparedness
March 16, 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 15, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
We are back with lots of great core vocabulary resources in another edition in the TELL ME About It series. In today’s post, AAC SLPs Maggie Judson and Jeanna Antrim share ideas for language learning with the book ‘The Skin You Live In.’ Maggie and Jeanna are speech-language pathologists who work in the Assistive Technology Department for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative (BASSC) in southern Illinois. They are AT/AAC facilitators and provide evaluations, direct therapy, consultations, and trainings with school teams. Check out the video read-alouds using 3 different AAC apps, and their ideas for classroom activities, e-learning, supporting AAC learning at home, and more. Also, don’t miss their tips for dealing with communication breakdowns. To read more about how they prepare for a TELL ME week and see resources that are based on other books take a look at their previous posts in the TELL ME About It... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: communication breakdown, core vocabulary, predictable chart writing, shared reading, TELL ME
March 14, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. We have a handful of AAC posts for you. Monday – AAC in Secondary School: Using Surveys to Support Language Learning Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC Modeling at Home Thursday – Repetition & Perseveration on AAC Devices: 5 Things to Try ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Stick around for a bit more if you can. Here are some posts that may be of interest. Let’s Go Outside! 5 PrAACtical Ideas At the Very Beginning: Working with Pre-Intentional Communicators Sometimes I Feel Sunny AAC Access for Individuals with Significant Motor Limitations Through Partner Assisted Scanning Supporting AAC Learners in Emergent Writing: 5 Helpful Resources
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 11, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
It’s not unusual for people who are learning to use AAC to repeat themselves, something we’ve written about before. While it’s not usually a problem, there are times when this is less than desirable. Here are a few things to think about as you determine how to proceed. Look for the meaning. There’s almost always a reason why people repeat things in their AAC systems. We have to do some sleuthing to figure it out, but it’s worth the effort. One memorable example of this was from Candace, who kept navigating away from what I had planned for us to talk about and repeating things about camp. Initially, I didn’t think much of it, but when she persisted, I did some digging and eventually found out that something pretty scary happened to her there. Those repetitions were probably the best way she could think of to engage me in a... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: language therapy
March 9, 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 8, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
It’s a great day to explore ways to support AAC use, and today AAC SLP Ashley Larisey joins us with some activity suggestions and lots of implementation tips. Ashley is an SLP at Community High School District 218 in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She is also an Adjunct Clinical Supervisor and Instructor at Saint Xavier University. This post, part of the AAC in Secondary School series, focuses on the use of language experience surveys with students who are learning to use AAC. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Surveys Surveys can be used within almost any classroom activity to provide students with opportunities to communicate with both familiar and non-familiar listeners. Questions that are used for the survey can be used to gather more information about a topic that guides decision-making. Surveys can be embedded into academic, social, vocational, and community-based instruction. Take a look at some examples of how to use surveys in your classroom... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: education, high school, teens
March 7, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that you may have missed. Monday – A PrAACtical March: Resources for A Year of Core Vocabulary Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Feature Matching in AAC Thursday – School-based SLPs: Confidence in AAC Assessment Friday – PráctiCAAmente Conectados Con Links – Marzo 2021 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Still in the mood for some more AAC? Here are a handful of previous posts to explore. Video of the Week: On Using Symbols with Beginning Communicators Video of the Week: Object Symbols and Core Vocabulary A PrAACtical Look at Getting Started with AAC Symbols Fast FAACt Friday: On Symbols and Reading Core Vocabulary: Making Sense of Symbols
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 5, 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. From Costa Rica, we learn from Carolina who shares the story of her amazing son, Samuel. Don’t miss the adorable video of Carolina and Sami at the end. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Los invitamos este Viernes a unirse a compartiendo links en español, para apoyar a esta comunidad hispanohablante que crece cada día en el ámbito de la CAA... [Read More...]
Filed under: AAC Link Up, Featured Posts
March 4, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Many practicing SLPs had limited opportunities to learn about the practice of AAC during their graduate studies and even those who did probably had insufficient training and mentorship in doing AAC assessments. In this post, guest author Dr. Eric Sanders, Assistant Professor at Moravian College, discusses his research on how school-based SLPs feel about evaluating students who need AAC devices. School-based SLPs: Confidence in AAC Assessment As a former school-based SLP AAC specialist and current researcher, one of the things that I am interested in is trying to determine ways to better understand how services are provided to students who require AAC in schools in order to figure out ways to ultimately improve those services. One of the areas that has received little research interest in school-based AAC services is assessment and feature matching. There are a few likely reasons for this. AAC assessment can be very complicated,... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: pre-service AAC, slps