September 5, 2012
by Robin Parker -
AAC Supports- Don’t Go ANYWHERE Without Them.. Access To AAC & Visual Supports Allows Students to: Let you know what they want Let you know nicely what they don’t want Answer class questions Ask a question Say ‘I don’t know’ Ask for help Tell you they are having fun Create a Sentence Argue Negotiate Say a line in a school play Say ‘here’ during attendance Tell what they did on the weekend Tell what they did over the summer Tell you what they want to do at home Tell you if they are happy Tell you if they are scared Tell you if they are frustrated Tell you about their family Tell you about their pets Say please Say their name Say hello to a person Tell you what they like to do Ask for more Tell you which color they want Ask for a break Tell you why they are... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Benefits AAC, Nice Things To Say
September 3, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Last week I was talking to a bright, young professional who is starting her second year as a school-based SLP. She has a caseload of 60+ students, including a class of students who have significant communication impairments. When the conversation turned to building a support system for her students who use AAC, we talked about strategies for keeping all of the stakeholders in the loop. Here are some of the the things we touched on.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: communication, families, home, schools, therapy, tips
September 2, 2012
by Robin Parker -
We have recently been surprised (ok, shocked) by the absence of communication supports in educational settings that are supposed to be supporting learners with significant communication challenges. To be even more specific and blunt, the students do not have functional spoken speech. They can’t speak to let you know: what they need, what they don’t need or want, how they feel, what they see, what interests them, what questions they have, what they like and don’t like, when they really reallywant something, etc., etc. etc. And, trust us, they do need to say all of these things. If you work with anyone who does not use spoken speech and we mean ANYONE, they deserve the basic right to communicate with you. Our PrAACtical AAC Absolute A’s: AAC displays need to be accessible ALLOVER. There is no special ‘communication time.’ Communication teaching is ALL the time in authentic situations.... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Strategies
August 27, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
“How was school?” (Good) “What did you do?” (Nothing) This scenario plays out in many cars and kitchens in the after school hours and it can be hard to know who is more frustrated: the kids for being asked or the parents for not getting satisfactory answers. And still, we repeat the process day after day. Of course, we want to know the fine details of what happened and how our children felt, but in some cases, we’d settle for ANY school-related conversation at all. I’ll be the first to admit that it took me way too long to get the hang of how to get information about my children’s school days, and it seemed like just when I did, pow! They were pre-teens and then teenagers. New rule book. Here are some ‘lessons learned’ along the way about those afterschool conversations and some suggestions for parents of the kids... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: families, home, implementation ideas, schools, visual supports
August 25, 2012
by Robin Parker -
We live in Florida and there are lots of general summer storms. They can be very loud and dark. There are also many hurricane warnings (like now for Hurricane Isaac). Many children and adults with communication challenges can become upset or anxious because of the loud noises, the change in routines, and/or the heightened state of anxiety that is usually around the house or community. Because of this we are often asked to help find visual support resources. Here are some great prepared visual support stories and resources that we use: Bad Weather Tips and Story by Hands in Autism Hurricane Preparedness More Hurricane Preparedness Thunder/Lightning Storms Thunder Box Sometimes though the prepared supports do not meet the needs for specific learners. Here are our tips for developing your own storm visual supports and resources Creating Personal Participation Stories Use language of the story that is at the... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: choice boards, Social Story, Sotrms, visual supports
August 25, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It seems like only last week that I was enjoying ISAAC 2012, spending time with friends, and attending AAC sessions. Here are some links to handouts for a few of the sessions. 1. Sarah Blackstone and many others: Effective Patient Provider Communication: The Expanding Role of our Professions 2. Jane Farrall: What’s APPropriate: AAC Apps for iPhones, iPads and other devices 3. Melanie Fried-Oken: A Comparison of Communication Board Use for Conversations in Primary Progressive Aphasia and Alzheimer’s Disease 4. Janice Light and her colleagues: Effects of AAC Systems with “Just in Time” Programming For Children with Complex Communication Needs 5. Janice Light & David McNaughton: Evidence-based Literacy Intervention for Individuals with Autism who Require AAC
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conference, handouts, ISAAC, resources
August 24, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
We loved it as a computer program and now we love it as an app. 1. The AAC Evaluation Genie app covers a lot of ground, starting with simple discrimination tasks all the way up through word prediction. 2. It helps keep us organized and focused in the app portion of the assessment process: The way the assessment activities are laid out helps us move beyond picture identification in a organized fashion. 3. It allows for a lot of flexibility. How many times have you done an AAC evaluation where you prepared for a client with a certain set of skills, only to find yourself face-to-face with someone whose skills are way above or below what you planned for? It ’s great when you have a tool that will let you move easily to another set of tasks when the need arises. 4. It accommodates both direct selection and scanning. 5.... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Evaluation Genie, Apps, assessment
August 23, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Well, the school year is all of 3 days old and already we’ve had plenty of questions about AAC apps. Sigh. We’ve had our ups and downs with AAC on mobile devices, but there is no sense rehashing all of that here. Instead, we’ll focus on some of the tools we use when helping to determine which, if any, are a good fit for a particular communicator. AAC App Lists: Comprehensive AAC app list for iPhone and iPad by Jane Farrall Feature Match Checklists & Forms: Jessica Gosnell at Boston Children’s Hospital Scott Marfilius and Kelly Fonner Our Rubric for Evaluating the Language Aspects of the AAC App RELAACs Other Helpful Sources Scoop.It collection and Pinterest boards with AAC app sites and videos OCALI’s listing of apps for individuals with ASD Tech Connect’s Apps Assistant The App Academy’s site for app training videos
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, assessment, checklist, feature match, resources, rubric
August 22, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
We tried to be patient. We really did. We tried to wait until we had the new venue for our site all figured out and ready to go, but the truth is, we missed blogging and hated the thought of going a few more weeks without being able to post. So we decided to reactivate our old site for the time being and post occasionally to this site. Pardon our dorky look, please. In case you missed these on Facebook, here are are a couple of things we shared in the past few weeks: Lemonade: http://screencast.com/t/xaFcbxySW Building Classroom Participation: http://www.screencast.com/users/CZee/folders/Jing/media/15818f72-c49f-4da6-a12d-e52250794234 PrAACtical Alert: Online Trainings: http://bit.ly/NZ9HYT COCOA: http://www.edutecher.net/educlipper/index.php?shareImgid=2478 AAC Rating Scales: http://www.edutecher.net/educlipper/index.php?shareImgid=2499 and http://bit.ly/Ocgte5 And now onto something new… Last week, I had the chance to talk with Karyn, a mom whose adorable daughter with significant vision impairment and multiple disabilities is entering school for the first time. As she helped... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: families, schools, tangible symbols, transitions
August 3, 2012
by Robin Parker -
We can’t believe there are only a few weeks left before school starts. We have been talking to teachers, scheduling school and teacher trainings, helping to prepare communication dictionaries, and making recommendations for classroom materials. We realized that there are some bigger resources that would help MANY students in a classroom and even a school. These are gifts that might cost a lot of money ($150 or more) or a lot of time to set up (but are free). We realized that these would be great gifts for a parent group (PTA’s/PTO’s) or charitable organizations/foundations to give to a teacher, classroom, or school that has students who use AAC even though the gift will benefit ALL learners. Give a gift before school starts or after a successful fundraiser. 5 Great Gifts to Give to A Classroom News-2-You – A symbol based current event newspaper that allows ALL students to talk... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ablenet, communication, reading, single hit message devices, symbols