Sunday: Video of the Week – Using an Alphabet Flipbook for Writing Monday: Strategy of the Month – Understanding Our Learners Tuesday: Teach Me Tuesday – Scene and Heard Wednesday: Watch It Wednesday – ABC’s of Independence Thursday: AACtual Therapy – Building Language and Emergent Literacy Skills with ‘Do You Wear Diapers?’ Friday: Fast Fact Friday – School-based SLPs and Students with AAC Needs
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
If you’re up for a little light reading this weekend, you might want to check out ASHA’s 2014 SLP Schools Survey Caseload Report. Among the findings: 55% of school-based SLPs regularly serve students with AAC needs 90% of them serve kids with ASD. The largest median caseload (60) was in Florida, and the smallest (35) was in New York. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Reference American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2014). 2014 Schools Survey report: SLP caseload characteristics. Available from www.asha.org/research/memberdata/schoolssurvey/.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
What’s more fun than using story books to teaching language to young children with AAC needs? Today, we hear from Kimberly Scanlon, an SLP practicing in New Jersey. Kimberley is is a devoted mom, wife and dog lover and blogs at Scanlon Speech and My Toddler Talks. She is the author of My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child’s Language Development and is finishing a unique picture and activity workbook, Learning to Read is a Ball. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Hold on to your undies, today we’re going to talk about poop, diapers, and the location of where various animals go potty. Sounds like a good time, right? Kidding aside, in this post I’m going to show you how to use this adorable picture book, Do You Wear Diapers? by Tanya Roitman to facilitate language and emergent literacy development in toddlers and preschoolers. What’s this book about? It’s a potty book! This adorable board book... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Books, emergent literacy, Kimberly Scanlon, potty, preschoolers, reading
We were looking for an adult-oriented alphabet materials the other day and came across this gem. Thanks, Beth Moulam!
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Tagged With: Beth Moulam, independence
Today, we’re learning about Scene and Heard by TBox Apps. User Guide Introductory Video by TBox Download Other Scenes Adding Videos to Scenes Creating an Index of Scenes Recorded Webinars on Predictable Where To Go for Help: info@tboxapps.com
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC app, Scene and Heard, Teach Me Tuesday
Sunday: Video of the Week – AAC in the Group Home Monday: Strategy of the Month: Engaging the Learner Tuesday: Research Tuesday: Photos Versus PCS – Babies Weigh In Wednesday: Five Facebook Groups for Families of Beginning Communicators Thursday: 5 Things We’ve Learned from our AAC Families Friday: Fun Friday: Check Your Knowledge of AT History
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As clinicians with a focus on AAC, we know something about how assistive technology has developed over time. How much? Not as much as we thought! Check your own knowledge of AT history with this fun timeline.
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Tagged With: assistive technology
Here’s something we want our young clinicians to understand. Often families come to us for what we can share and teach them. Just as often, though, they’re the real teachers. Here are some lessons learned from some amazing families. Start where they are, not where you wish they were. Celebrate the tiniest of victories. Success breeds success. Small, sustainable changes are the best kind. When things have petered out, it’s okay to start over. It’s better than giving up. Muffins and fruit make those difficult meetings a little easier. (Thanks, Stephanie!) Happy fall semester!
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Tagged With: families
What’s better than parents and professionals who are knowledgeable about beginning to use AAC with children? Connecting with them on Facebook. Here are some of the most active AAC-related groups out there. 1. Speak for Yourself Users Group (Despite it’s name, this one is not limited to families/professionals who use SFY.) 2. AAC: Alternative Awesome Communicators 3. Angelman, Literacy, and Education (Despite the name, the content is very applicable to a broad range of developmental disabilities.) 4. Apraxia-Kids (not AAC-specific but lots of good information) 5. PrAACtical AAC (Okay, we’re biased!)
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Tagged With: beginning communicator, Facebook, families, parents
We’re back again with another Research Tuesday post, a series organized by Rachel Wynn of Gray Matter Therapy, in which bloggers are encouraged to write about a research article that they’ve read recently. (You may also know Rachel from her amazing work in advocating for ethical services in skilled nursing facilities.) For our September post, we look at a study done with babies to see how they like different AAC symbols. SLPs frequently assume that children with AAC needs better understand and prefer photos to other forms of picture symbols used in AAC. In this article, we look at the work of special educator Alexandra DaFonte whose work gives us some insight into this issue. In this study, she sought to determine if typically developing infants at 6, 9, and 12 months of age responded to two types of graphic symbols used in AAC: actual photographs and Picture Communication Symbols... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Alexandra da Fonte, babies, PCS, photos, Research Tuesday, symbols