Teach Me Tuesday: ComLink

April 22, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts


Teach Me Tuesday: ComLink

Welcome to Teach Me Tuesday, featuring the ComLink from FRS-Solutions. The ComLink has different models and they can run two kinds of communication software, The Grid 2 (Standard) and Viking Communicator (Alternative). There are videos and resources for both models in this post. ComLink LT3G Quick Start Guide ComLink ST3G Quick Start Guide ComLink 3G Quick Start Guide Where to Go For Help ComLink Ultra Quick Start Guide Where to Go For Help If you know of any other helpful training resources, please let us know via the comments so that all can benefit.

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You Might be an AAC Therapist If…

April 18, 2014 by - 33 Comments


You Might be an AAC Therapist If…

You peruse the dollar store muttering “What could I do with this?” You squeal in delight when Amazon puts personal laminators on deep discount. You find yourself wanting to point to symbols when you talk to friends and family. You buy velcro if you see a good deal, even if you don’t need it. You’ve seriously considered making a voodoo doll in the image of the insurance person who issued the most recent denial of coverage. You have an Allen wrench at the bottom of your purse. You have an un-natural fondness for clip art and Creative Commons. You’d rather sit in a great conference presentation than go to see the latest movie. You can think of a dozen ways to make page fluffers. You’re so ‘over’ goals for making eye contact. You’ve made friends with the guy who cuts Lexan at the home supply shop. You think of the... [Read More...]

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AACtual Therapy: From PECS to iPad with Jason Butcher

April 17, 2014 by - 2 Comments


AACtual Therapy: From PECS to iPad with Jason Butcher

We are pleased to share a guest post by SLP Jason Butcher, who serves students at Grant County Middle School. Jason has been working with middle and high school students for the past 14 years.  He earned his Master’s in Communication Disorders from the University of Kentucky in 1999.  He admits that he came to do AAC more out of necessity than interest due to serving a huge variety and degree of speech/language impairments on his caseload.  He has always enjoyed working with technology and is patient when fixing problems, qualities that he thinks have served him well when hitting the inevitable roadblocks that come with working in the area of AAC. In this post, Jason shares some candid thoughts on the transition from PECS to an iPad for a student with whom he works. It was nearing the end of September when I began to fear that Ms. Ruff, a teacher... [Read More...]

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Talking Mats: A PrAACtical Tool

April 16, 2014 by - 4 Comments


Talking Mats: A PrAACtical Tool

We’ve shared about Talking Mats in a video and on our Facebook page, but we needed to call on the experts to go into more detail about this approach. Thankfully, the co-directors of this project, Dr. Joan Murphy and Lois Cameron, were willing to collaborate. in this post, Dr. Murphy shares her knowledge with us. Hope you enjoy learning about the implementation of Talking Mats as much as we did. What is Talking Mats? Talking Mats is an innovative, award-winning communication tool which is based on extensive research and designed by Speech and Language Therapists in Scotland. Our vision is to improve the lives of people with communication difficulties by increasing their capacity to express their views about things that matter to them. Talking Mats is an interactive resource that uses three sets of picture symbols – top scale, topics and options and a space on which to display them.... [Read More...]

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Let’s Go Outside! Five PrAACtical Ideas

April 15, 2014 by - 4 Comments


Let’s Go Outside! Five PrAACtical Ideas

It’s spring where we live and that means that many of our prAACtical friends are itching to get outdoors. Whether we’re going for a walk, checking out a park, and lingering on the playground there are plenty of activities that provide a good excuse for some AAC practice that’s functional and fun. Here are a few ideas for things to model (using aided language input, if you’re with a beginning communicators) and elicit. Keep in mind that some AAC learners will benefit from additional support to help them generalize skills used well in therapy rooms and classrooms to the great outdoors. Where should we go? Making choices and giving directions for specific locations using core and fringe words (e.g., go there, on swings, under tree) How should we move? Good opportunity to to practice verbs and descriptors (e.g., go, jump, walk, fast, slow, big, little). Practice or introduce higher level... [Read More...]

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AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 15: April, 2014

April 12, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts


AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 15: April, 2014

Here are some AAC posts you may have missed. Sunday: Video of the Week – What Do You Want to Do? Monday: A PrAACtical Reflection: Do No Harm Tuesday: Teach Me Tuesday – SpeechTree App Wednesday: PrAACtical Resources: Models of Best Practice in the Education of Students with ASD Thursday: PrAACtically SLPs- Hungry for Bilingual AAC Friday: Resources for A Year of Core Words

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Resources for A Year of Core Words

April 11, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts


Resources for A Year of Core Words

We’re big fans of the Speak for Yourself app, so when we saw that Christine Bayley used our Year of Core Words 2013 version (see also: 2014 version) to make an SFY version, we were thrilled! You can check it out for yourself here. Christine is adding to it little-by-little, so visit her site (Hi, I’m Tom) for the most current version. Interested in A Year of Core Words for other symbol sets/systems? There are a few more in the Download section of our e-Toolbox. Enjoy!

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PrAACtically SLPs: Hungry for Bilingual AAC

April 10, 2014 by - 2 Comments


PrAACtically SLPs: Hungry for Bilingual AAC

We are so excited to launch, PrAACtically SLPs, a new series featuring the voices of graduate students in SLP programs who do outstanding work in AAC. We start off with a wonderful group from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Allie Rodriguez, Caitlin Rich, and Megan Latta are second year SLP students who will be graduating in May. They recently concluded an AAC course taught by Dr. Penny Hatch, who continues to mentor them in the field of AAC and literacy. I met these energetic young professionals at the North Carolina Augmentative Communication Association Conference in February and was inspired by their passion. In this post, they tell us about their AAC experiences on a trip to Guatemala. Hungry for Bilingual AAC?             Today, our population is becoming more culturally diverse, which, in turn, has caused our caseloads to reflect this change. There is a growing... [Read More...]

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