August 1, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Lots more ISAAC fun to tell about in Day 4! — My day started with a shorter version of the presentation on the preschool core language curriculum that I’m working on with Lori Wise. You can see the handout for that presentation here. — There is some fascinating work going on in the area in supporting the emotional development of children with AAC needs. Dr. Sarah Blackstone and colleagues talked about the developmental sequence in which emotional competence emerges. They are working on an observation and interview tool used to collect information on a child’s emotional development and the caregiver strategies. They are planning a pilot study with the tool they are developing and actively looking for volunteers to use this tool with children who are developmentally between 12 months and 10 years. – Terry Foss and and Jane Korsten did an interesting presentation called Promptology 101 where they reviewed some... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conference, core vocabulary, Four Block, ISAAC 2012, Jane Farrall, presentations, resources, Sarah Blackstone
July 31, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Today was the first day of the main conference and it did not disappoint. The conference began with a plenary session that was moving beyond words. For me, the highlight was Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame joined in song by conference co-chair Katya Hill, and Snoopi Botten, who sings using AAC. Hearing the three of them sing songs like Puff the Magic Dragon and others made popular in the civil rights area did much to reinforce the notion that communication is a basic human right. The ongoing struggle to make that right accessible to all was highlighted in a speech by ISAAC president, Erna Alant, of South Africa, who rekindled our commitment to this effort. Another wonderful aspect of the plenary was the parade of nations, AAC style. Snoopi sang as the flags of the ISAAC members’ countries were displayed, and there were rousing cheers for all... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: #ISAAC2012, Bliss, Conference, ISAAC, Shirley McNaughton
July 30, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Last week, one of our blog followers, Jeanne Tuthill, alerted us to the fact AAC Evaluation Genie, a software program from Hump Software, went mobile. This is a great program (now app) for doing direct assessment to answer clinical questions you have in doing AAC evaluations. Thanks, Jeanne! – There are 14 sub-tests: Visual Identification, Visual Discrimination, Noun Vocabulary, Function Vocabulary, Verb Vocabulary, Category Recognition, Word Association, Category Inclusion, Category Exclusion, Pixon Core Vocabulary, Unity Core Vocabulary, Unity Icon Patterns, Picture Description, and Word Prediction – Yesterday, I learned that the app will be free in honor of #ISAAC2012 for this week. You can download the app version of AAC Evaluation Genie here. –
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, assessment, resources
July 29, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It was another wonderful day here in Pittsburgh at the 15th Biennial ISAAC Conference. It was a special day for me because I had the opportunity to speak about a really fun topic, core vocabulary teaching for young children with AAC needs. It was certainly a group effort! A talented graduate student of ours, Tathiane Paiva, and I shared a framework for developing a curriculum to teach core language in preschool classrooms, and used the curriculum I developed with Lori Wise (special educator and literacy specialist with UM NSU CARD) as an example. The basic principles behind the approach we shared are listed below. – •Language and literacy learning happen all day long. •Children learning AAC need high-quality instruction to learn and use basic vocabulary. •Children learning AAC need frequent opportunities for learning and practice. They need dozens of carefully planned opportunities to use their new words each day. •The focus is on... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conference, curriculum, ISAAC, ISAAC 2012, language intervention, preschool, presentation, schools
July 29, 2012
by Robin Parker -
When we first started PrAACtical AAC, Carole wrote a post titled “5 Nice Things To Say To A Student Who Uses AAC”. We thought it was time to update these by adding visual support (and a few extra nice things to say). Why did we want to add visual support? Because then we are able to implement a favorite language facilitation strategy— Aided Language Input (ALI). We try to implement aided language input (ALI) when providing positive specific feedback so the message can be ‘seen and heard’. We can definitely say nice things without visual support (and we do), but when we can, we do. Everyone needs to hear nice things, A LOT. Just ask yourself, do you get all the positive feedback you want? Visualize- 9 Nice Things To Say To A Student Who Use AAC *All images created from Open Clipart Library which is the library for high-quality free clipart and ImageBot. A PDF... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Users, aided language input, Nice Things To Say
July 29, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Welcome to ISAAC, 2012! — It’s the first day of the ISAAC pre-conference and the focus of the workshop I attended was on healthcare. It was quite an honor to learn from such a stellar group of AAC professionals, including Sarah Blackstone, John Costello, Kathryn Garrett, Richard Hurtig from the US and Cristina Cerantola, Elisabeth Cataix Negre, several others from around the world, who came together to talk about effective patient-provider communication. As we well know, the AAC community is one of several communication vulnerable populations that require special supports when accessing health care. This presentation was highly interactive and covered best practices, strategies, and technologies that we should be putting into place for people with AAC needs as they interact with medical personnel. – There was a wealth of resources shared during the workshop, mostly of very prAACtical resources. We have permission to share many of them here. Watch... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conference, healthcare, ISAAC, ISAAC 2012, patient provider communication
July 28, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Some PrAACtical AAC thoughts about challenging behavior: I wonder if it is ok to say that we love seeing challenging behavior during speech-language therapy sessions or observations. Well, I said it, both of us do, because if we really ‘listen’ then we can figure out what to teach that will really help our students. We tend to prioritize our goals into High Priority and General Priority. Challenging behavior and the communication message behind it, definitely falls into high priority. This is because challenging behavior in students limits experiences, limits interaction, and overall limits opportunities for people to get to know you. Consider Challenging Behavior through Communication Glasses Is it really Challenging Behavior? behavior that is or can be destructive or hurtful. Examples include but are not limited to: hitting, biting, spitting, throwing, pounding, etc. (Note: we are not talking about poor eye contact or poor attention to task or even laughing... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Challenging Behavior, communication, positive behavioral supports, visual supports
July 28, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Keeping track of all the AAC devices, vocabulary sets, and other features is a full time job and few of us have the time to do that. And, yet, when we’re considering the different AAC options for a particular client, we have to be able to access that information. Looking for SGDs that have a specific vocabulary set? Need to identify the small, handheld AAC devices? Looking for devices that do voice calling? – Finding an AAC device that is a good fit for the people with whom you work is much easier when you have a searchable database. In the US, many professionals are familiar with AbleData and use it to find equipment that fit the bill. SpeechBubble is another free resource that indexes AAC devices in the UK. – Search by Feature SpeechBubble makes it easy to search for features you know that your client needs. There is... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, resources, SGD
July 27, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It’s not every month that I get a chance to go to an international conference, let alone one focused specifically on AAC. Join me as I head to the ISAAC 2012 conference at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. While I’m here, I’ll try to post some of the highlights. – ISAAC 2012 has a camp for people who use AAC (July 27-28), a pre-conference (July 28-29), a main conference (July 30-Aug 2), and a post-conference research symposium (Aug 3-4). There are also lots of social events and plenty of time to network, make new friends, and visit with old ones. You can view the program here, visit them on Facebook, and follow along with their Twitter feed, too. There will probably be quite a few bloggers sharing their ISAAC experiences, so if you can’t make it to Pittsburgh, you can appreciate it from afar. – I am excited... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conference, ISAAC
July 26, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Some posts that may be helpful for planning AAC assessments 92 Free or Lite Versions of AAC Apps Introducing RELAAACs: Rubric for Evaluating the Language of Apps for AAC PrAACtical Resources: Making Decisions about Reading Accessibility Options PrAACtical Questions: How Do I Find Good AAC Service Providers? PrAACtical Questions: How Can I Get AAC Devices for My Evaluations? 5 Tips to Make AAC Assessments Run Smoothly Sites We Love: Online AAC Assessment Tool 5 Things To Do Before You Choose an AAC App: Take A GULP
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, resources