December 26, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
We’re so thrilled to have Shareka Bentham back as an AACtual Therapist, this time talking about her journey into high tech AAC. You can see other posts from Shareka here. One of our colleagues completed the AAC evaluation on a client of Shareka’s. While preparations for that evaluation were underway, we were fortunate enough to learn of an AAC device that was no longer needed. The family agreed to donate it to this little fellow, and that seems to have launched a whole chain of prAACtical events. Shareka takes it from here… Sadly, this is not the first step into my career as a rapping superstar, but more a description of my journey from ‘no tech’ to high tech in AAC use. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be showing off my skills on a high tech AAC device, and teaching children, parents, and teachers... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
December 25, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Christmas
December 24, 2013
by Robin Parker -
Use social narratives to explain happy upcoming events, stressful upcoming events, and out of the routine type events. Not only do social narratives help with understanding, but they can also help with ways to talk about activities and events. Use Aided Language Input (ALI) to model. It will show that even when there is a lot going on, AAC is still important and a high priority. Give out some AAC related presents to educators, professionals, families, and AAC users. Create the visual supports for holiday songs and poems. Or use a single step or sequential message device to record the songs, so everyone can sing together. You can even program the songs into high tech devices and have quite the good singing voice. Provide frequent communication opportunities for the AAC user to make choices, give opinions, rate activities and events, vent, ask questions, tell, and share information. Make talking photo... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC ideas
December 23, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a laminator with a warranty. On the 2nd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 2 eye gaze systems and a laminator with a warranty. On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 3 custom keyguards, 2 eye gaze systems, and a laminator with a warranty. On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 4 switch toys, 3 custom keyguards, 2 eye gaze systems, and a laminator with a warranty. On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 5 SGDs, 4 switch toys, 3 custom keyguards, 2 eye gaze systems, and a laminator with a warranty. On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 6 smiling kids, 5 SGDs, 4 switch toys, 3 custom keyguards, 2 eye gaze systems, and a... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Christmas, Christmas carol
December 20, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
Teaching core vocabulary is the best way to pack a lot of power into an AAC system. As some of you know, we post things to the PrAACtical AAC Facebook Page a few times/day. Recently, we shared a link to a core word board from the I Can Newsletter folks that was posted on Boardmaker Achieve. We asked for suggestions for what you could say with those words. Here’s are some great ideas from our prAACtical friends: Come again: Love that this can be used in a literal sense, but also as a snarky comment Get help Go away: Language learning and self-advocacy – this one’s a two-fer! Your bad Stop it. Ready, go! Go get it. I like it. I want all done! I want more You do/did it. You stop it. You want it. What you want? We’ll take any opportunity to model questions and teach how to... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Boardmaker Achieve, communication book, core vocabulary, I Can
December 19, 2013
by Robin Parker -
The Strategy of the Month for December is about Pre-Intentional and Beginning Communication. We knew this topic meant a lot to us because these learners are often overlooked or given up on just when they need help the most. We didn’t realize how important it was to us, until we started ’rounding up’ our past posts and found so many. We are fortunate to have worked with many pre-intentional and beginning communicators because they often teach us the most, and we love learning. Presuming Competence 3 Responses to Programs that Make Kids “Prove Worthiness” Prior to Providing Access to AAC Does AAC Benefit Individuals with Profound & Multiple Disabilities Strategy of the Month Strategy of the Month: Supporting Pre-Intentional Communicators Breaking Through with Pre-Intentional & Beginning Communicators of All Ages Supporting Pre-Intentional Communicators Teaching Basic Requests Making it Work: The PrAACtical Side of Therapy to Teach Requests Literacy Lessons for... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: beginning communiator, beginning communicators
December 18, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
Deanne Shoyer, from Small But Kinda Mighty, has been sharing some fantastic ideas for building language in kids who are learning AAC. In this video, she shows how she used a visual scene display on a mobile device, Scene Speak (Good Karma Apps) to facilitate literacy and core vocabulary. You can read Deanne’s post about it here. Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoeo1Z9Fqno
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, Good Karma Apps, literacy, Scene Speak, visual scene displays
December 17, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
We love single message and sequential message communicators for their ease and flexibility. This week in Teach Me Tuesday we’re learning more about the various versions of TapSpeak Button and Sequence. Here are the learning resources we’ll be using. TapSpeak Button User Guide and Forum TapSpeak Sequence User Guide and Forum Videos Where to Go for Help If you know of other applicable resources, please add them in a comment below. See you next time!
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, TapSpeak, Teach Me Tuesday
December 16, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
We were looking for some core vocabulary lists the other day and it struck us: Maybe you were, too! Here are some we found, both for core words and other AAC-related topics. Core Vocabulary Adults – Baladin& Iacono, 1999 via Minspeak.com Adults – Hill, 2001 via Minspeak.com Toddlers – Banajee et al. 2003 via Minspeak.com Children [UNL] Preschool Children – Marvin et al. 1994 via Minspeak.com Children (combined sources) – Anderson & Bitner, 2013 Common core related words [UNC CLDS] Young adults [UNL] Older adults [Stuart, et al., 1997, via Minspeak.com] Various classroom, academic, and related lists [Gail Van Tatenhove] ALS [UNL] Break time at work [UNL] Dolch words: PreK through 3rd grade Medically-oriented [UNL] Young children [UNL] Know of one that we should add to the list? Please comment or get in touch so we can add it in. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: UNC: University of North Carolina UNL: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, Gail Van Tatenhove, Minspeak, University of Nebraska, University of North Carolina, vocabulary list
December 13, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
Like many of you, we continue to hear about programs that withhold AAC supports from children who are nonverbal or minimally verbal. Sometimes they point to the perceived lack of readiness that the child has for AAC, in general. Other times, they erect barriers, such as an artificial benchmark that insists that children start with no-tech AAC (e.g., communication boards, books, PECS) or low tech SGDs before ‘earning the right’ to sophisticated AAC options. As yet another year comes to a close, it is hard to believe that there are still programs, administrators, or, worse yet, our SLP colleagues who think they are truly justified in limiting access to AAC. How can we move beyond tearing our hair out, drinking excessively, or ranting to our friends? Here are some ideas. “Show me the evidence.” Ask for empirical support for the position that withholding access to AAC tools and strategies is more... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: barrier, participation model, prerequisites, rationale