February 2, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
It’s prAACtically Valentine’s Day so we’re reprising this past post with AAC-friendly resources for one of our favorite holidays. Valentine’s Day, a celebration of love and romance, is just around the corner. We’re keeping up the tradition of sharing ideas for an AAC-friendly holiday so that you can focus your attention on the supportive strategies that facilitate AAC learning. Take a look. Have fun with this animated PowerPoint poem, 5 Little Valentines, from Bloom. Print and send these Valentine’s Day cards from CoughDrop Valentine’s Day Is Here: Enjoy a video sing along with the Swingset Mamas Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR2S1AanFmFOY-W42JGdsuloRizrpmEE9e-YcrqU_Aqmo4McFJpqRfDnokY&v=Rbtgl9n3mJg&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=Swingsetmamas Supporting someone in a virtual platform? Check out these Boom cards From Beautiful Speech Life: I LIKE Activity From Welcome to Words: Cupid, Cupid, What Do You See? Make a bracelet with Valentine’s Day vocabulary and print out fun gift tags with this packet from... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
January 31, 2023
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: PrAACtical Thinking
January 26, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
It takes time and effort to plan for comprehensive core vocabulary instruction. The Year of Core Vocabulary Words and The School Year of Core Vocabulary Words, two series of monthly resources for core vocabulary teaching, both have resources that can be helpful to therapists, educators, and families. We’re reprising those posts for anyone interested in following along and utilizing the resources developed by quite a few people in the AAC community. The initial series was based on a small set of core words for each month (see that post here). We followed that with a second set of Year of Core Vocabulary Word resources for a new list of words (click here for that post). Among the many resources are the activity calendars created by AAC SLP and co-founder of Talking AAC, Rachael Langley. There were many other contributors over the years who added to these efforts. The School Year... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
January 24, 2023
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: PrAACtical Thinking
January 23, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
While training communication partners is an important role for SLPs and other professionals, there’s an additional way to promote supportive interactions. Empower AAC users to give instructions to their communication partners. Prestoring partner instructions and teaching AAC users how to utilize them improves their ability to advocate for themselves. What partner instruction messages might be helpful? It depends on the individual situation, but here are some ideas to get spark your creativity. Tell them what to expect I use this special computer to talk. I understand everything you say, but it takes time for me to respond. Please be patient and let me put together my message after you ask a question. This assistive technology is one of the ways that I communicate. I choose messages with my eyes and it takes a while for me to do that. You’ll hear each word as I choose it but wait until... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
January 22, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some AAC posts that you might have missed. Monday – Toward Communicative Competence in AAC: 5 Strategic Skills to Consider Targeting Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Reducing Device Abandonment Thursday – Bilingual AAC Support from Monolingual Professionals: An Introduction ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: And while you’re here, check out some of these past posts. 5 Ways to Promote Consistent AAC Use Twin Powers Unite: Teaching AAC and Sight Words Pragmatic Skill Instruction and AAC with Matthew Baud and Dr. Jill Senner Parent Collaboration in AAC Therapies 5 Books for AAC Professionals PrAACtical Questions with Vicki Clarke: What’s the Role of Core Vocabulary?
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
January 16, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Communicative competence is a multi-faceted concept that was introduced to the AAC field by Dr. Janice Light over 3 decades ago. One area that is sometimes neglected is strategic competence. In this post, we offer suggestions for compensatory skills to target to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of AAC-mediated interactions. Attention-getting: While most AAC users get the attention of their communication partners before sharing their thoughts and messages, beginning communicators may need explicit instruction in this area. It is particularly important for those who use AAC tools that have no voice output, such as a no-tech eye gaze frame or a core communication board. This is also an important skill to teach to those who rely on a partner’s assistance to create messages, such as PODD book users. Modality switching: Ben is an effective keyword signer who prefers this modality over all others. This works well with others who sign... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
January 12, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
In just a few days, people around the US will be taking time to honor the slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. If you are looking for ideas to mark the occasion with an AAC flair, take a look at some of the posts below. PrAACtically Martin Luther King, Jr Day PrAACtically Martin Luther King Jr Day: AAC Learning Suggestions It’s PrAACtically Martin Luther King Jr Day Martin Luther King, Jr Holiday: 5 Resources for AAC Learners
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
January 11, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
The AAC community lost a powerful voice recently. Today, we honor Rick Creech by looking back at his testimony at the US Senate Special Committee on Aging. Part 1 Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHuOoYMZ1Ls&ab_channel=TheMinspeakChannel Part 2 Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxtsjv6ecXA&ab_channel=TheMinspeakChannel
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
January 9, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
We’re so pleased to welcome PrAACtical AAC contributor Vicki Clarke back to these pages. While you may remember Vicki from her outstanding AAC Assessment Corner posts, her most recent efforts focus on strengthening our AAC practices. Throughout the series, Vicki draws on her experiences supporting AAC users and teams in clinical and school settings and shares prAACtical information that we can all learn from Introduction to AAC 101 Steps to Learning It is no small task to consider how we will help our students progress from communicating only through behaviors to communicating any message they desire independently and spontaneously. In fact, in 1997, Gloria Soto conducted survey research that tells us: Teachers have always believed that communication training for students is positive, and Communication training is a collaborative effort between teachers and SLPs, Despite these beliefs, there is still a prevalent hesitancy to begin to explicitly instruct students in AAC.... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking