June 2, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Jill Senner and Matthew Baud are back to share some of their favorite therapy activities. In this post, they discuss how they build language while making ice cream. Summer is almost here and we’re already thinking about making our favorite frozen treat, ice cream in a bag. No special equipment is required. With a couple of plastic zipper bags and 5 ingredients already in your kitchen, kids can shake milk into ice cream in just 5 minutes. Free picture recipes can be downloaded here. As with many of the cooking activities we love, there are lots of natural opportunities for language use before, during and after cooking. Before cooking we read the recipe and check the kitchen to see if we have the ingredients. If any are missing, we write shopping lists of ingredients we need. We can take a community field trip to the grocery store where there... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AACtual therapy, implemention, intervention
June 1, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Ice cream, watermelon, and camping! It must be prAACtically summer vacation. We are so grateful to Rachael Langley for continuing to share these monthly calendars with ideas for targeting core words from our Year of Core Vocabulary series. You can get Rachael’s June calendar by clicking on the image below. Happy almost summer!
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, Calendar, Rachael Langley, resources
May 31, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Monday – On Memorial Day Tuesday – How I Do It: Conversation Practice with Teens and Young Adults with Angela Adams Wednesday – Video of the Week: Intro to PBS Thursday – Core Vocabulary Resources for June
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
May 28, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
It’s prAACtically June and that means we are preparing for a new set of core words to focus on. Join us in highlighting a set of core words for the month and helping our AAC learners become more fluent in using them on a day-to-day basis. Whether you are following along with the 2013 Year of Core (12 words/month) or the 2014 A(nother) Year of Core: (16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), or just getting started, the resources linked in this post may be helpful. Our June words are listed below. 2013 List: after, am/be/is, because, can, cold, fast, fun, have, hungry, let, need, talk 2014 List: about, back, buy, grandmother, hand, inside, lose, move, okay, people, quiet, short, show, two, water, yellow Resources Templates for you to plug in your own symbols: 2013 words, 2014 words Minspeak/Unity version: 2013 words PCS versions: 2013 words, 2014 words Symbol... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, AAC Resources, Another Year of Core Words, download
May 26, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Angela Adams is next up in our Better Hearing and Speech Month lineup. Angela is an SLP in a school district in Washington where she works with middle and high school students, many of whom use AAC. In this post, she shares some thoughts on helping them build conversational skills. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: In March 2015 I had the pleasure of attending AAC in the Desert in sunny Phoenix. Presenters Caroline Musselwhite, Erin Sheldon, and Gretchen Hanser sent us away with tons of information. I used Caroline Musselwhite’s idea of Co-planned conversation scripts as a basis for the following activity. Working in a school system and with a variety of staff, it is highly beneficial when the activity is organized and has simple instructions. Take screen shots of the phrases needed for the conversational activity. Cut out the social phrases needed and then laminate. I labeled the back of each phrase card so... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
May 25, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Memorial Day
May 24, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Monday – How We Do It: AAC at the Larc School with Kaitlyn Connors and Rachel Egbert Tuesday – 5 Presentation Handouts on AAC Topics Wednesday – Video of the Week: Communicative Competence in AAC Thursday – Conversations in the Classroom with Tina Moreno
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
May 21, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Better Hearing and Speech Month continues with guest blogger Tina Moreno. In this post, Tina shares some thoughts on building meaningful conversations in the classroom. She also made her visual support materials available for downloading (link at the end of her post). You can read Tina’s previous post for BHSM here. CONVERSATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM Fostering opportunities for meaningful conversation is critical throughout the school setting. Great discussions can happen in the classroom, but it can prove challenging for students to remain on topic, take conversational turns and give their peers wait time. In order to help students acquire these skills, we need to provide direct instruction, modeling by adults (and typically developing peers whenever possible!) and visual supports. Aim for the conversation target It can be difficult for students to keep track of the conversation target, especially in large group, fast-paced settings. It can be especially challenging for... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: classroom, Tina Moreno
May 20, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Today, we return to Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire to view another video from their AAC Initiative. In this presentation, Michael McSheehan reviews the domains of communicative competence in AAC and discusses issues and research supports for each area.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: communicative competence, Michael McSheehan, University of New Hampshire
May 19, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
AAC people are notorious for their love of professional development. If you haven’t been able to attend as many conferences as you would have liked, you might enjoy these handouts from AAC presentations in the US and Australia. Jane Farrall and Sally Clendon (AGOSCI, May 2015): Self-selected Reading Ashley Robinson (NCACA, 2015): Building Classroom Communities to Support AAC Users Caroline Musselwhite, Erin Sheldon, Deanna Wagner, Laurel Buell, & Gretchen Hanser (Closing the Gap, 2014): Communication Circles Lauren Enders (ATIA, 2014): AAC-Ideas for Infusing Core Language Across the Curriculum Jennifer Buxton (ATIA, 2014): AT Implementation in the School Setting – Struggles and Successes
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: handouts