April 5, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Hope your prAACtical week is going well! Sunday: Video of the Week – Connecting with Prelinguistic Communicators Monday: Strategy of the Month: Thoughts on Teaching Word Prediction Tuesday: 10 AAC Things to Do for Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month Wednesday: Watch It Wednesday – Music and Communication by Ryan Judd Thursday: AACtual Therapy – Supporting the Development of Early Grammar with Kimberly Ho Friday: 3 AAC Presentation Handouts You May Have Missed
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
April 4, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Couldn’t get to the ATIA conference in Orlando in January? Here are some wonderful handouts from three AAC presentations. Lauren Enders: AAC-Ideas for Infusing Core Language Across the Curriculum Kate Ahern: Bringing AAC Home Jennifer Buxton: AT Implementation in the School Setting – Struggles and Successes The Call for Papers for the next ATIA conference will be out later this month. Hope to see you there in 2015!
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ATIA 2014, handouts, Jennifer Buxton, Kate Ahern, Lauren Enders
April 3, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Our guest post for today is from SLP Kimberly Ho, an AAC specialist who operates a private practice, AAC Services. I met Dr. Ho many years ago when she was getting her master’s degree at Purdue University. She went on to get her doctorate and now consults for a number of public schools and works with individuals with AAC needs from preschoolers to adults. Kimberly is active in teaching (undergraduate and graduate courses), writing (published three articles in peer reviewed journals) and public speaking (15 presentations at regional, national and international conferences). In this post, she discusses some concepts in teaching grammar to people who are learning AAC. Traditionally, individuals with complex communication needs (CCN) were provided with communication boards or speech generating devices (SGDs) filled with topic specific vocabulary often called fringe words. The field of AAC is only just beginning to provide early communicators with access to Core... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Brown's stages, grammar, Kimberly Ho, language intervention
April 2, 2014
by Robin Parker -
We continue to love using music in AAC intervention and have learned so much from talented music therapists who incorporate communication into their music intervention. Enjoy this great video of Ryan Judd, of the Rhythm Tree, talking about using simple instruments to help children communicate, improve skills, interact, and have fun.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Communiction, music, special needs
April 1, 2014
by Robin Parker -
We love Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month. There is so much excitement and great community activities. The month becomes very busy so we love choosing events and projects that facilitate autism acceptance and AAC learning. We pass out materials, have contests, do extra trainings and have many public awareness events. We make sure to support our events and activities with AAC materials. Here are some of the things we do and recommend to support AAC and Autism learning. Please share any activities or projects that you know about. Bake, share, & eat some desserts. Use and include visual recipes when cooking. Need inspiration?.. Go to Your Special Chef for shopping lists and recipes. Educate peers visually by using the Autism Acceptance Book: Being a Friend to Someone with Autism by Ellen Sabin Develop & Use a personal participation story (modified social story) to let alert someone that this will... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD, Autism Acceptance
March 29, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Here are some posts you may have missed. Sunday: Video of the Week – Core Vocabulary In Action Monday: Strategy of the Month – Let’s Read and Write Storybooks Tuesday: PrAACtical Fun (and a little bit of core vocabulary) Wednesday: Opening the Gates Thursday: 5 Quick and Easy Games to Build AAC Skills Friday: Fast FAACt Friday – Quick Reading Tip
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
March 28, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Want to do something really great for some of your prAACtical friends who aren’t yet reading fluently? Turn on closed captioning whenever they watch TV or videos. Our fast fAACt for the week: Subtitles and captioning support reading comprehension and vocabulary learning, too. Check out Chris Bugaj’s podcast and other resources, and turn on those captions! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Koskinen, P.Wilson, R.M., Gambrell, L.B. & Neuman, S.B. (1993). Captioned video and vocabulary learning: An innovative practice in literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 47(1), 36-43.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Chris Bugaj, closed caption, reading
March 27, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Have a few minutes and want to get in some core word prAACtice without making it seem like work? Giving the AAC learner a chance to boss us around and direct us do things just because they tell us to is something that has worked for us more times that we can count. Put the AAC learner in control and make it fun. Get your silly on and ham it up but remember to use aided language input throughout the process. Here are some ideas. They say: “Go,” “Sit,” “Tell,” or “Walk.” We act that out in the craziest way possible. They say: “Happy,” “You happy,” “Sad,” or “You sad.” We make the most ridiculous happy/sad faces imaginable. They say: “What,” “What is it?” or “What is that?” We use the context to figure out what they’re referring to and say “It is a ___.” They say: “Get the ____,”... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, fluency, fun, games, practice
March 26, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
For many users of AAC, the road to communicative competence is an arduous one. Consider the case of JJ, a bright 4 year old with severe motor limitations, who enters a typical preschool with only a few intelligible words. After months of meetings, on the first day of school, his proud parents carry him into the classroom. They fasten him into an adapted chair that they brought for him to sit in and spend a half hour giving his aide instructions about his likes and dislikes, feeding difficulties, and toileting needs. Meanwhile, his teacher introduces him to some classmates, who are amazed, curious, and a little frightened of his unusual chair, constant drooling, grunting sounds, and random, jerky movements. One brave soul offers the child a toy, but JJ’s unruly arms bat it away and won’t let him take it. His would-be friend steps back, a bit confused. As they... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: prerequisites
March 25, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
It was so gratifying so be at the most recent ASHA and ATIA conferences and notice how many presentations covered some aspect of core vocabulary. The shift away from noun-heavy, activity-based vocabulary has gained significant momentum. Teams who are deeply invested in teaching core words find that it becomes a way of thinking. Still, it’s not as easy as it seems to use core words. We found this fun site that we thought you might like, too. It challenges you to explain or discuss something using only the more frequent 1,000 words. Check out these examples, then try your hand at using core words to explain how to make a favorite recipe, explain what you did at work today, or teach a lesson. If someone can summarize a whole movie or doctoral dissertation with core words, shouldn’t we be able to model them when we speak to AAC learners throughout... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, fun