It’s been a wonderful week of building awareness and acceptance! Monday – October Site of the Month: The National Professional Development Center on ASD Tuesday – “But he doesn’t use it!” 5 Things to Try to Boost Requesting with AAC Wednesday – Video of the Week: Adapting Books with Visual Scene Displays Thursday – PrAACtically Halloween: Considerations for an AAC-friendly Holiday
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Holidays are special and Halloween is a favorite among many. As much fun as it is to dress up and get candy, though, there are lots of ways that Halloween can be stressful for AAC learners. From the change in routine, to the costumes and scary decorations, to talking with neighbors and other less familiar communication partners, to the over-abundance of sugar, there are lots of ways in which Halloween can trip us up. If the AAC learners in your life celebrate Halloween, Fall Festival, Harvest Parade, or any other celebration with similar traditions, we SLPs can help them to have a positive experience. Here are some ideas. Use a social narrative to prepare everyone for what to expect on and around Halloween. Read them often in the weeks leading up to the school dress-up parade, party, and the big day itself. More Halloween social narratives can be found at Therapics,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: download, Halloween, social narrative
You did the assessment and got funding for the AAC device/app/aid. You regularly implement aided language input and your therapy is progressing nicely. You’ve spent time with teachers, paraprofessionals, family members, and others to educate them about AAC. You’ve worked with them to develop some initial goals around requesting wants/needs (even though that wasn’t your favorite place to start). You’ve identified some of his favorite things and even programmed language that allows him to request ‘something else’ if he doesn’t care for any of the choices. The foundation is set and things should be coming along. So what’s the problem? Well, it seems that the AAC learner hasn’t quite gotten the memo. Sigh. Rather than use the amazing AAC tool to ask for what he wants, Jonah continues to reach, grab, whine, and cry to get his needs met in most situations. Yes, progress is happening, but s-l-o-w-l-y. You have a... [Read More...]
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Tagged With: requesting
October’s featured site is full of resources on empirically-supported instructional practices for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The National Professional Development Center (NPDC) on ASD website was a collaborative effort by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the MIND Institute, University of California-Davis which was funded by the US Department of Education. You may already be familiar with their work through their collaboration with the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) in creating the Autism Internet Modules. While there are various things to explore on the NDPC site, there are a few main resources that you won’t want to miss. Practice Briefs If you are looking for at-a-glance information on intervention practices and their research supports, this is a page you will want to bookmark. There are over two dozen practice briefs that summarize the literature in instructional... [Read More...]
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Tagged With: ASD, Autism Internet Modules, NDPC ASD, Site of the Month
It’s been a wonderful week of building awareness and acceptance! Monday – How I Do It with Kimberly Scanlon: Using Visual Supports to Build Attention and Cooperation Tuesday – Teach Me Tuesday: PECS V+ Wednesday – Video of the Week: Core Vocabulary 101 Thursday – Supporting Language Growth in AAC Learners: Part 2
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Last month, we began some musings about the sad reality that the percentage of people who use AAC to communicate in a grammatically correct fashion is woefully small. In that post, we explored some of the reasons for that and looked at conversations in which the communication partner does a lot of vertical scaffolding. While the term vertical scaffolding may be new to some of you, the concept is one with which you are quite familiar. Here’s an example: Learner: Olaf. Elsa. Clinician: Are you telling me about Frozen? Learner: Nods Clinician: What about Frozen? Learner: Book. Clinician: Oh, did you get a Frozen book for your birthday? Learner: Nods excitedly Clinician: Awesome! You should bring it next time so we can read it together. Scenarios like this are very common in AAC, especially among communicators who use their AAC to say 1-2 words at a time. Because their... [Read More...]
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Tagged With: language intervention, language therapy
Last month, we featured some wonderful videos from a project of the Angelman Syndrome Foundation that is a great starting point for anyone preparing to implement robust AAC for the first time (you can see that here). Today, we return to the ASF Communication Training Series to get an overview of key constructs in core vocabulary. SLP Maureen Nevers helps us understand the role of core vocabulary in AAC systems and instructional plans (such as IEPs). Even if you are familiar with core vocabulary, this video addresses issues that will support implementation. Many, many thanks to the ASF and the Foster Family Charitable Foundation for the support the provided to create this video and for making it available to all of us.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Angelman Syndrome Foundation, ASF, core vocabulary, Maureen Nevers
We’re back with another Teach Me Tuesday post to help us all learn more about the wide range of traditional SGDs and AAC apps. If you use the traditional paper-based PECS or the PECS III app, this may be of interest to you. You can use these resources to explore PECS Phase IV+ by Pyramid Education Consultants. PECS Phase IV+ App Product overview Video Overview Manual Getting Started Video Where to go for help Phone: 302 368-2515 Email: pyramidus@pecs.com
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Teach Me Tuesday
Having solid goals and fun activities is one thing, but being able to connect the two and teach communication and language takes skill. We have the best outcomes when the interventionist knows a variety of strategies that can support the learning outcomes. We’ve written about implementing countdown boards and other visual supports to build attention in the past, and have been gratified to hear from many of you who utilize those strategies. In today’s post, SLP Kimberly Scanlon, owner of Scanlon Speech Therapy, discusses how she implements this strategy and shares her own clever variation. You can download it at the end of the post. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: You plan the session. In fact, you over-plan and over prepare. You carefully select materials ensuring they are appropriate, engaging, and motivating for the client. Each activity will be short. Short is key as this student grows restless and losses interest rather quickly. You remove... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: attention, countdown board, Kimberly Scanlon
It’s been a wonderful week to launch a month of activities for building AAC awareness and acceptance! Monday – PrAACtically October: Year of Core Word Resources Tuesday – PrAACtically October: A Core Word Calendar Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC in a Shared Reading Group Thursday – AAC Awareness Month
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking