Happy International AAC Awareness Month! Do you have plans to celebrate or build awareness about AAC? Here are some images that can help you do just that. The larger images are sized for Facebook header images and the smaller ones for Facebook profile photos.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness, Facebook
Looking for a way to connect with families to encourage modeling of AAC at home? If your learners have AAC systems that are rich in core vocabulary, this calendar by Rachael Langley may be just the ticket. Each day has a suggestion for things to do or say that build experience with our October core words. Click on the image to get a version you can download. BIG thanks to Rachael for creating these each month and allowing us to share them on PrAACtical AAC.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, core vocabulary, Rachael Langley
It has been so exciting to hear about the growing number of classrooms, therapy sessions, and families who are prioritizing high-frequency core words with AAC learners. Whether you are using a high tech SGD, AAC app, or no-tech communication boards/books, core vocabulary teaching can play a powerful role in building language skills. If you are following along with our 2013 Year of Core (first set with 12 words/month) or the 2014 A(nother) Year of Core: (second set 16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), you may have printed out some of the word cards to use with the AAC learners in your life. Thanks to the kindness of PrAACtical AAC readers (Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Alison Wade, Russell Cross, Gail Van Tatenhove, Eric Sailers, Rachael Langley, Laura Kessell, Christine Bayley and others) we have a variety of resources to explore. Once you have them, the idea... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Year of Core
Monday – PrAACtically SLPs: An AAC App Journey Tuesday – Supporting Language Growth in AAC Learners, Part 1 Wednesday – Video of the Week: Preparing for an AAC Journey Thursday – PrAACtical Resources: Communication Access Cards
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Even the most well-intentioned person can be a poor communication partner for individuals who use AAC. The average person has no idea how to communicate effectively with someone who has a significant communication disability, and is likely to do things that are less than helpful. These Communication Access Cards, developed by Scope, can be just the thing to improve the quality of interactions. You can download this wonderful resource here.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Communication Access Cards, Scope
Here’s a sobering thought. Relatively few users of AAC use grammatically correct sentences when they communicate. There are lots reasons for that, but in this post, we focus on understanding the things that contribute to that problem. In Part 2, we’ll look at ways to address the issue. Let’s reflect on the problem of why many AAC learners don’t communicate with complete, grammatically correct utterances. When communication is time-consuming and difficult, it makes sense to put your effort to saying things that convey a lot of meaning and skip the rest. If you are trying to get your point across with as little effort as possible, content-heavy words, like agents, actions, and places, pack a punch. As clinicians, we are often so driven to understand the main points of what the learner is trying to convey that we promote that strategy. Here are two snippets to illustrate. Clinician: Look at... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: intervention, language therapy, vertical structure
What is more amazing than seeing kids with AAC needs become competent communicators? How about seeing the next generation of SLPs become competent in AAC?! It is over-the-moon exciting to think of how many lives we could touch if more SLP students became passionate about AAC. Today, we add to our series called PrAACtically SLPs, where we hand the reins to students studying to be SLPs who’ve taken a special interest in AAC. This post is authored by Stephanie Johnson and her colleague Brianna Simmons, two Australian student Speech Pathologists from Macquarie University. They recently completed a clinical placement at Lifestart, an agency that supports children and young people living with disability. Because many of the children on their caseloads had significant communication challenges, AAC options became an important focus of their intervention. In this post, they tell us about their journey learning to use an AAC app with some of their clients. Please... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC app, Brianna Simmons, Macquarie University, Proloquo2Go, SLP students, SLP2B, Stephanie Johnson
Monday – PrAACtical Site of the Month: SET-BC Tuesday – How We Do It: Handy Tools for Language Sampling with Dr. Jill Senner and Matthew Baud Wednesday – Video of the Week: Visual Schedules with AAC Learners Thursday – Throwback Thursday: 10 Posts on Activity Ideas for Language Therapy in AAC
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Great kid. Check! Appropriate AAC system. Check! Well-developed intervention goals. Check! Key intervention strategies. Check! Where do we go from here? Well, if you are anything like the young clinicians with whom I’ve been speaking, you might be thinking about therapy activities and materials. Here are some past posts that may be of interest. Magic Moments with Tellagami New Word Teaching: A Look Inside Some PrAACtical Therapy Sessions 5 Ways to Use Word Clouds in AAC Therapy and Magic Moments with Word Clouds Magic Moments: Painting with Time Teaching the Use of Social Phrases and Comments Let’s Go Outside! 5 PrAACtical Ideas Magic Moments with Disneyland Explorer “Can I Ask You a Question?” Language Experience Surveys 5 PrAACtical Thoughts on Catch-up Conversations Magic Moments with Sentence Builder
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: activities, language intervention, language therapy
We are pleased to welcome back Dr. Jill Senner and Matthew Baud to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart: language sampling. Jill is an AAC SLP and the owner of Technology and Language Center. An experienced AAC interventionist, she has presented at numerous national conferences and has taught graduate AAC courses. You can follow Jill on Pinterest or visit her at the TALC Facebook page. Matthew (@Mbaud12/Twitter) is the AT Coordinator at Niles Township District for Special Education where he conducts AAC evaluations, trainings, and coaching of AAC. He has an AAC private practice and is an adjunct AAC instructor at Saint Xavier University. Matthew has presented at several national and state conferences. In this post, they share their favorite tips and resources for language sampling and language sample analysis. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Language sample analysis is an oldie but a goodie in the field of speech-language pathology. While writing down and analyzing what children say is not a new idea,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: download, Jill Senner, language sample, language sample analysis, Matthew Baud, resources