Helping teams to get to know the communication abilities of our AAC clients is something many of us struggle with. In this video from The Perkins School, we learn about their process for developing communication portfolios. http://www.perkins.org/resources/webcasts/communications-portfolio.html
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, beginning communicator, Perkins, portfolio, teaming, teams
Sunday: Video of the Week – Using Eye Gaze Monday: Strategy of the Month – Engagement Take-Aways Tuesday: Teach Me Tuesday – DynaVox Eyemax Wednesday: 2014 AAC Awareness Month Celebration Thursday: The Faces of AAC – Justyna and Wiktoria Friday: Fun Friday – Successful Interactions
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Friday is a great day to pause for a bit of fun. I had the opportunity to meet Janelle Sampson, of Two Way Street, this spring and learn a little bit about the work that she does. In this post, we share a video of one of her little friends using various modalities to communicate with his mother and brother. Enjoy this wonderfully prAACtical interaction! Big Words for Little Boys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWimeCvbIY
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Fun Friday, interaction, Multimodal, vocabulary
What better way to promote AAC awareness than to share the faces of people who use AAC and the SLPs who serve them? Today, we go to Poland to visit with Justyna Puchalka, who has a private practice in Bielsko, and her young client, Wiktoria. Justyna has been working as a speech therapist for almost 10 years, mostly with young children who have a range of conditions including Down Syndrome, Prader Willi, cerebral palsy, autism and multiple disabilities. Justyna shared that she is very passionate about her work. “Because ‘my children’ make my work a challenge and, thus, my work gives me much satisfaction, not to mention that I simply like to help these children and their parents.” Justyna made a video to share some thoughts about Wiktoria’s AAC journey. Many thanks to Justyna, Wiktoria, and her family for helping us celebrate AAC Awareness Month! Direct link tovideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eLE2nlA6R8
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness Month, Faces of AAC, Justyna Puchalka, Poland
Could it really be October already?! Let’s start off AAC Awareness Month with a giveaway. We are so grateful to the following organizations for donating raffle prizes for this drawing. Please take a moment to thank them. Aacorn Ablenet Alexicom Appy Therapy Choice Works/Bee Visual Hump Software Lesson Pix News 2 You Safe N Sound Mobile Saltillo Smarty Ears Speak For Yourself Speak MODalities SpeechPathology.com Speech Tree Apps TapSpeak Therapy Box Tobii-Dynavox How Does It Work? We use Rafflecopter to administer the giveaways. All entries made through there will be counted toward our drawings. Once we’ve drawn our winners, we’ll send an email to each one. You’ll need to be a good sport to play along because we’re not going to get into requests for specific prizes or substitutions. (As I learned from wise-beyond-her-years Pauleen, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” Love that!) The winners will... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness Month, Giveaway
Ready to learn more about the EyeMax from DynaVox? Eye Max User Guide Series 5 User Guide Series 5 Training Manual Series 5 Full Manual InterAACt Guide Where to Go for Help: Search the Knowledge Base, Live Chat, Phone (800-588-4548)
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: EyeMax, Teach Me Tuesday
Sunday: Video of the Week: Mentoring AAC Learners Monday: Strategy of the Month: How Clear Priorities and A Little Sacrifice Build Engagement Tuesday: Emergent Literacy Work in AAC Therapy Sessions Wednesday: PrAACtically Pinterest Thursday: Make It PrAACtical – DIY Customizable Stylus Friday: PrAACtical Resources: Making Communication Work
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
This resource from AAC Scotland has lots of great tips and strategies for helping to make communication exchanges with people who use AAC more successful. We love that many of them are straight from people who communicate with AAC. It is very interactive so make sure to click and explore. You can also download a pamphlet explaining AAC here.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Scotland, interaction, partners, resources
Lost your stylus? Have a kid who’s really tough on them? Need to customize one for a client with motor concerns? Theresa Willkomm and the team at the New Hamphire AT project has a great video that gives us a few different options.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assistive technology, AT, DIY, stylus, Theresa Willkomm
We strive to use some of our therapy time to build the literacy skills with all of our beginning communicators. It’s not easy. First, because they often have little to no interest in it (at first), but mostly because our time together is quite limited. Here are some of the things we’ve been doing. Having our clients sign in themselves (Think: name stamps, stickers, tracing, or even making a mark) Looking for their name on their therapy room door: We make signs and print two copies. We give them one in the waiting room so that they can match it to the sample on the door. Formatting the visual schedule so that the client does some writing (Think: check box, crossing off the activity when finished) Picking a book or the topic: For some of clients we use the books themselves, but for most we use their AAC. It’s time... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: beginning communicator, Books, emergent literacy, writing