October 5, 2012
by Robin Parker -
We are incredulous! In a GREAT way, an AWESOME way, an EPIC way. The generosity of the AAC community has honestly made us speechless for a moment. Then we quickly had a lot to say about AAC Awareness Month and the PrAACtical Celebration. So ENTER THE GIVEAWAY BECAUSE: The GIVEAWAYS are awesome! You can learn about a lot of new resources! You can get AAC Awareness ideas. You can help promote AAC Awareness Month! It’s fun to try and win! There are a lot of giveaways! You can learn about cool companies to ‘like’ on facebook. You or someone you know may be surprised. AAC Awareness is important! The GIVEAWAYS are awesome! Ablenet, Inc Abilipad Alexicom BeeVisual Dynavox/Mayer Johnson Gail Van Tatenhove, PA Hump Software iClick iTalk MarbleSoft News-2-You Patient Provider Communication Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company RJ Cooper Say It with Symbols Silver Lining Multimedia SpeechPathology.com TapSpeak... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness Month, Apps, GiveAways
October 4, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Although the field of AAC emerged only in the last few decades, the notion of communicating in alternative ways is centuries old. In classical times, the use of manual communication by deaf individuals was referred to by Plato and documented in Europe during the Middle Ages. In North America, American Indian Hand Talk evolved over generations to allow cross-cultural communication between speakers of diverse languages. As a clinical/educational field, AAC has been described as evolving through a “bottom-up” mechanism. Individuals with congenital conditions that prevented the development of intelligible speech invented their own communication systems long before teachers, therapists, and clinicians formalized instruction in alternative modes of expression. AAC users growing up in the forties and fifties tell of communicating through grunts, vocalizations, “air writing,” and eye movements, which, though effective in some contexts, were maddening in their limitations. Individuals who were fortunate enough to have access to habilitative and... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, change, historical perspective, ideas
October 3, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Behavior challenges tend to be a major concern of speech-language pathologists, parents, and educators alike. It is the area that is often most nerve wracking for many professionals and families. But once you get a set of strategies that help you have a plan, most challenging behaviors can be reduced. We like to think of challenging behaviors as opportunities 1: for the learner to practice understanding or expression of communication and language and 2: for facilitators/educators to use behavior strategies or learn new ones. So in order to be best prepared for challenging behaviors, start a Communication-Behavior Strategy Tool Kit. Here some powerful tools that will help ALL learners. 3 Power Tools for Communication & Behavior Choice Boards- helps give a learner power but under our guidelines and boundaries. With choice boards, a student learns more communication while having less power struggles/behavior challenges. Opportunity to teach choice making, expression... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Strategies, Challenging Behavior, choice boards, first-then board, signs, visual supports
October 2, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we have mixed feelings about the AAC app revolution. More specifically, we’ve had concerns about the decision-making process around app selection, the paucity of apps that allow for children to learn true generative language, and a few other things. We continue to advocate for AAC app selection to occur within the context of a feature match process that gives appropriate attention to the full range of AAC options. In this mega-post we’ve included our most recent update of free and lite versions of AAC apps for iOS and Android plus a variety of additional resources related to AAC app selection. Tools to Use In Making Decisions About AAC Apps Feature match form developed by Jessica Gosnell at Boston Children’s Hospital Feature match checklist created by Scott Marfilius and Kelly Fonner Our supplemental rubric covering language and communication features, RELAAACs Places to... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC checklist, AAC rubric, Android, Apps, free, iOS, iPad, lite, mobile device, RELAAACs
October 1, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It’s a prAACtical celebration! Thanks to the generosity of a lot of companies and individuals, we’re hosting some AAC Surprise Giveaways in honor of AAC Awareness Month. As you can see, we’ve had lots of prizes donated from these wonderful folks: Ablenet, Inc Abilipad Alexicom BeeVisual Dynavox/Mayer Johnson Gail Van Tatenhove, PA Hump Software iClick iTalk MarbleSoft News-2-You Patient Provider Communication Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company RJ Cooper Say It with Symbols Silver Lining Multimedia SpeechPathology.com TapSpeak TherapyBox/TBoxApps How Does It Work? We use Rafflecopter to administer the giveaways. All entries made through there will be counted toward our drawings. We’re holding four drawings spaced throughout the month, and will draw winners on October 10, 17, 24, and 31. Prizes are randomly assigned to each winner. We’ll send an email to each one letting them know what they’ve one. The winners will have 5 days to respond to our email.... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness Month
September 30, 2012
by Robin Parker -
PrAACtical AAC got an amazing makeover and are we ever thrilled with the feel and functionality of our new site! Thanks to the support of some wonderful friends, especially Bruce Quiroz of Elemental Studios and Jay Churba, we are up and running on a more secure site that can safely handle the number of links and images we use in our posts. You’ll find all of the features that we had before, like Strategy of the Month and Video of the Week, but with a new, fresh look and faster load time. With larger images and better organization, it should be easier for you to find the content you want to explore. Plus, it’s easier to connect with us via Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, if you’re so inclined. We’re eager to get back to our regular schedule of posting AAC content and excited to be back in action just in... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
September 28, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
In past posts, we shared links to some handouts from the ISAAC 2012 Biennial Conference in Pittsburgh. While it is great for those of us who attended but couldn’t get to every presenter we wanted to hear, the main idea was to help spread the awesome content to those of you who couldn’t be there. Here are some others that may be of interest. Creating a Core Vocabulary for a Common Core Curriculum by Karen Erickson, Penelope Hatch, Allison Dennis, & Marlene Cummings Baby Talk/Kid Talk PWUAAC Talk to Little Ones! by Krista Howard, Kaitlyn Graham, & Caroline Musselwhite Evaluating Preferred Augmentative and Alternative Communication Strategies for Patients in Long Term Health Care Hospitals by Susan Fager, Jenna LeDoux, & David Beukelman Prompting: A Cautionary Tale of Use, Misuse & Abuse by Jane Korsten & Terry Foss Supporting Linguistic Skills Through iDevices: Cool Tricks with New Applications by Caroline Musselwhite,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ISAAC 2012, resources
September 26, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Get ready, AAC lovers, AAC Awareness Month is coming! One of the most wonderful things about the AAC community is the pervasive sense of sharing and giving. When we told some of the people we know that PrAACtical AAC was planning a giveaway for AAC Awareness Month, they responded with an overwhelming level of generosity. So far, we have books, switches, software, apps, and a low tech SGD to give away from some of the companies whose logos are appear in his collage and more. What can you do to win some of these fabulous goodies? Help spread the word about what AAC is, who can benefit, and how to better implement it. We’ve started you off with some suggestions here: 50 PrAACtical Things to Do In Celebration of AAC Awareness Month. We’ll be sharing more information about how to enter to win some fabulous AAC-related goodies, but we’ll give... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness Month, free, Giveaway, resources
September 17, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
There are things no one likes to talk about. Serious things. Sensitive things. Nonetheless, everyone deserves the tools to be able to talk about whatever they want to share. The How It Is Project, by the UK-based Triangle organization, offers a set of free pictures developed so that everyone has access to images they can use to talk about their feelings, their rights, personal safety, personal care, and sexuality. We love how they developed the vocabulary list and symbols on the site with the help of children and youth with and without disabilities. You can download the document with images here.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, self-advocacy, symbol, vocabulary
September 16, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
We’re always looking for new ways to represent things visually. Today, we’re sharing an idea from Amy Laurent on helping children take turns. You can view a video explaining the strategy she uses and download the visual support here.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD, intervention, pragmatics, social skills, turn taking, visual supports