February 17, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
We are so pleased to have SLP Karen Natoci back with the second edition of PrAACtically Reading. You can see her first post here. I love that this lesson focuses on older students, providing an age respectful activity (who else loves Mad Libs?!) and a prAACtical way for students with lower verbal skills to develop their reading abilities. Writing to Read: Mad Lib, Core Words, and Literacy Instruction Core Vocabulary focus: like, dislike, uh-oh, again Sometimes it is fun to just write our own BIG BOOK and this month, we decided to do that by using a simplified “mad libs” format. Honestly, I’m not sure who had more fun, the teachers, the student authors or myself! I was inspired by the work of Gretchen Hanser. I attended her workshop on writing at Oakland Schools (MI) in the fall of 2013. She showed us that all students develop writing and experience... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Karen Natoci, literacy, Mad Libs, older learners, reading, writing
February 16, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
If you are among those who believe that AAC is a 24/7 proposition, then, like us, you may be looking for ways that we SLPs can better support our clients in the community. Like the rest of us, our AAC clients want and need to be active participants in their healthcare, and we can play an important role in helping them build the receptive and expressive communication skills to be more successful in that. In today’s post, we hear from Dr. Rachel Menzies (Email: r.menzies@dundee.ac.uk) from the AAC Research Group in the School of Computing at the University of Dundee. Dr. Menzies shares ways in which her team is developing social narratives around visiting the dentist. I’ve never been a fan of going to the dentist, but I am lucky. I have the cognitive capacity and understanding to consider the consequences of NOT going to the dentist and to regulate my emotions when I... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
February 15, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Monday: How We Do It – Stirring Up Some Fun! Professional Development Our Way with the LCPS AT Team Tuesday: Materials for February Core Words Wednesday: Video of the Week – Technology for Us, Too! Thursday: AAC Goes to Summer Camp
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
February 12, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Those of you who are still digging your way out of the most recent snowstorm may not believe it, but it’s almost time to make plans for summer. There are quite a few AAC camps, some that are quite well established and others that have been running for only a few years (see our AAC Camp Pinterest board here). In this post, we hear about one of them from Tina Moreno, an SLP and mom of Mateo, who uses PicturePower 100 on the Maestro to communicate, maintain friendships with his teammates on the cross country team, advocate for himself, reveal his wicked sense of humor, and even sing the National Anthem for his high school’s basketball games. Tina blogs at Voices4All. With the help of Drs. Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver, she and her friend Gina Cunningham created Camp ALEC together in memory of Gina’s son Alec, who never gave up, and... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: camp, Camp ALEC, flip book, letter board, literacy, Tina Moreno
February 10, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Thanks to all who’ve reached out to let us know that you are following along with the Year of Core Words. It’s exciting to know that so many classrooms, therapy rooms, and homes have found them helpful and are using the resources to build language skills. We’re returning to that topic today, due to the kindness of SLP Alison Wade. Alison created this document with our 2013 set of February core words represented by PCS, SymbolStix, and traditional orthography. You can download it by clicking on one of the images below, or by visiting the Download section of our eToolbox. Thanks, Alison, for letting us share your work!
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Alison Wade, download, PCS, Symbol Stix
February 9, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
How does the AT team at Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) set out to influence their colleagues to learn more about AAC? With digital technologies, of course, along with a heaping dose of fun. In this post, OT Judith Schoonover and SLP Sally Norton Darr share some of the team’s favorite strategies for professional development. Judie has practiced in schools since 1975, working as an OT, elementary school teacher, and an AT trainer in that time. She is a strand advisor for ATIA, and has authored chapters and presented nationally on topics including UDL, adapting books, the relationship between OT and AT, and low tech supports for students. Sally is an SLP and AT trainer for LCPS. She enjoys her work in the public schools and has fun presenting internationally, regionally, and virtually to diverse audiences on a wide range of low to high-tech strategies, interventions, and solutions. Sally is the... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Judith Schoonover, Loudon County AT Team, professional development
February 8, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Monday: Fun Finds at #ATIA15 Tuesday: Core Words for February – Putting Sentences Together Wednesday: Video of the Week – Auditory & Visual Scanning with Jack and Mary-Louise Thursday: 5 Things Families May Not Know About SLPs and AAC Assessment
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
February 5, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
A truth: People with significant communication difficulties need and deserve high-quality AAC assessments by experienced professionals. Some other truths: We want to do a good job. It feels a lot better to go home at the end of the day when we feel like we’ve really, REALLY helped your loved one. For us, there isn’t much that tops that feeling. We may have had little or no training in this. Most SLPs in practice today didn’t have any coursework in this area when they were in their graduate programs. Even if they did, they had little to no mentorship in applying the information to real clients in a real world setting. And even those who did get some clinical experience in AAC might not have worked with people similiar to your family member. Any learning we do about this is usually on our own time and at our own expense. People... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment
February 4, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Most of us learn better when we get to see examples of how things are done. In AAC, we don’t have nearly enough examples to learn from so I’m always grateful when someone agrees to show us how they implement particular tools or strategies. Today, we send a big prAACtical “Thank You” to Jack and Mary-Louise in Australia. When children have significant motor limitations, partner-assisted scanning may be their best option for message selection. In this video, Jack and Mary-Louise show us how they use a combination of visual and auditory scanning. Mary-Louise points to choices in his PODD book and says the message aloud so Jack can consider his options. Jack does his part by signaling when he sees/hears a desired message. Because his body is terribly unoccoperative, he signals in a few different ways (i.e., ‘Yes’ with vocalization, eyebrow raises, head nods, &/or eye gaze, and ‘No’ with a... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: auditory scanning, Jack White, Mary-Louise Bertram, partner assisted scanning, PODD book, visual scanning
February 3, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
The recent ATIA 2015 Conference in Orlando served as validation that core vocabulary is now a widely accepted practice in supporting language development with AAC learners. Presentation after presentation discussed the rationale, research support, and strategies for implementation. In 2013, we suggested that one way to help strengthen learners’ abilities with core words is to take a different set of 12-20 core words each month and focus on them for a few weeks. How? By modeling those words, making resource materials (like word cards with the symbols), creating activities in which those words figure prominently, posting them in the classroom/therapy room, reading books that have heavy use of these words, sharing them with families, write stories using them, etc. In this post, we share some sample sentences to model for our February 2013 and 2014 core words. The target words for this month are in CAPS. 2013 Year of Core again... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Year of Core