May 26, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
I don’t think there is a house I’ve ever been to that hasn’t had a drawer that looked something like this. If your junk drawer has some old phones (you know, the ones you saved ‘just in case’), consider digging them out and putting them to good use. – The folks at Different iz Good, one of the wonderful groups featured in our post on charitable groups that support AAC, have a cellphone drive program that helps fund the iPhones and iPod touches that they provide to people with significant communication challenges. Besides donating your own old phones, you can also put out collection boxes in schools, places of employment, the library, your gym, etc. Once you have 3 or more phones, shipping them is free. – Get the details at their site along with printable letters, mailing labels, and such. – –
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: mobile device, phone
May 24, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Our BHSM Strategy of the Month has focused on developing our Professional Learning Network, and in this past week we’ve shared some of our favorite internet sites. We can’t finish out the topic, though, without mentioning some of places where we spend time each week. When I first started following blogs by other SLPs, K-12 educators, and professors, I had no idea how much content was out there. Over the years, I’ve become more and more thankful for the wealth of information these bloggers so generously provide. Like anything else, blogs are a varied lot – some good, some not so good, and a few seriously excellent ones. – Here is ASHA’s 2012 list of the best blogs in SLP and some of our favorite blogs for AAC, AT, and tech-related content: Jane Farrall (http://www.janefarrall.com/blog/) Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs (http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/) Speech Techie (http://www.speechtechie.com/) The Speech Dudes (http://speechdudes.wordpress.com/) Spectronics (https://www.spectronicsinoz.com/blog/)... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: BHSM, blogs
May 24, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Memorial Day Weekend is big for us. We remember, appreciate, and honor the people who have protected our freedoms. We both have annual relaxing weekends planned. As we started to get ready, though, we started looking for Memorial Day AAC materials. It was surprising to see that there was not much to be found. We found some gluten-casein free Memorial Day recipes, which are great, but what about symbols to go with the recipes or symbols to explain the holiday and what about AAC language activities for the typical long weekend or trip? Not much…. So as we began preparing for our own weekends, these are some of the things we have done or are doing for PrAACtical AAC at home and on our mini-vacations: – Before We Leave Create a personal participation story (modified social story) so ALL the children can SEE the language for the trip. Here’s something that... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: holiday, ideas, Memorial Day, pictello, tapekio
May 23, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– For some people with significant communication difficulties, mobile devices and AAC apps play an important role. When selected after a process of careful evaluation, they can be incredibly useful in building communication, literacy, self-regulation, and other important skills. Here are links to organizations that provide support to families seeking mobile devices and communication apps for their children. – 1. The iTaalk Autism Foundation 2. Babies with iPads 3. Apps for Children with Special Needs 4. Different Needz Foundation 5. Gift a Voice Program from Different Iz Good™: iPhones only –
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, families, iPad, mobile devices, resources
May 21, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It’s no coincidence that some of our favorite apps to use with AAC kids don’t rely on good receptive language in order to be successful and have fun. Count us among the fans of Toca Boca for their creative play-based apps with great graphics and lots of repetition with variety. In this post, we share some Magic Moments for using Toca Store as a communication-building experience.– 1. Core Word Practice: Lots of opportunities for practice with familiar nouns (e.g., banana, doll), common verbs (e.g., get, see, want) and modifiers (colors, some, little). 2. Negation: This is another fun app to use when teaching a child to use language appropriate for negation, protests, and rejection. We like teaching that under low stress conditions like this at first to build their skills. Once they get the hang of it, then we help them use it under more natural conditions. That way we can... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, intervention, Magic Moments
May 20, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– Awhile back I heard from a frustrated student SLP who was in despair over a clinical placement. Great kids. Lots of opportunity for AAC. Experienced supervisor. Motivated student. — So what’s the problem? In this case, it was a student who knew more than her supervisor about AAC. Talk about a sticky situation! Ugh!! – Cleo Clinician felt that if she didn’t use AAC with her young clients, then she wasn’t putting her knowledge of best practices to use and, in the end, the children would be the losers. On the other hand, if she pushed her experienced but somewhat rigid supervisor on the issue, Cleo feared a defensive response. She didn’t want the kids to lose out, but Cleo didn’t want to get on her supervisor’s bad side, either. — So what’s an aspiring clinician to do?? Here are a few tips. — 1. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: rant
May 19, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Thanks to Smart Apps for Kids for another great app review AND notification of a great FREE App. We are writing this quickly because it is unclear how long Touch and Write will remain free. After reading the review in Smart Apps for kids, we immediately got the app and tried it out. Although it was developed to help teach fine motor writing skills, here are some additional ways we are going to use it to facilitate communication and language skills. Please let us know if you have some additional ideas. Choice making- the learner can choose the what you write with (ketchup, shaving cream, paint, chocolate pudding and many more), you can also choose the paper type from 28 options, and you can also choose to hear music or not, and whether or not to have tracing cues Turn Taking and Choice Making- This activity can... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: random apps of kindness
May 19, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Today we pass the reins to Dr. Oliver Wendt from my alma mater, Purdue University. Purdue’s AAC program has made a great many contributions to the field and the tradition continues with the development of SpeakAll, an AAC app modelled after the PECS strategy. In this post, Dr. Wendt explains how a service-oriented project came to benefit so many individuals with significant communication difficulties. — – SpeakAll! An iPad App Addressing Particular Needs of Learners with Autism – An interdisciplinary team of Purdue University students from engineering, special education, and speech-language pathology has developed a simple and “lite” iPad app that takes into account the particular learning characteristics of beginning communicators with autism. This particular Purdue program is titled “Engineering Projects in Community Service” (EPICS). – The free app is called SpeakAll! and is available for download at the iTunes store here. SpeakAll! has been modeled after the Picture Exchange... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, University
May 18, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Did we fail to mention that we are at Twitter Stage 4 ? (uh oh… we just found a 1-46 Twitter Stage Scale). Twitter seems to be our favorite medium for getting and giving information quickly. Although we still have so much to learn, as the song goes, here are a few of our favorite things: 140 Characters– We love to shorten directed learning and teaching. We only recently realized that listening to long (or short) lectures is not how we PrAACtically learn. The 140 character limit helps us ‘flip’ the learning by letting us give a short ‘teaser’ and a link. We love this. HashTags- It took us awhile to understand hastags and now we love them. Edudemic published a great A-Z Dictionary of Educational Hashtags that we refer to often. It is great to have everything in 1 place. Twitter Speak- We love the cool abbreviations that help you say... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: twitter
May 18, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– –ASHA’s Center on Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) in Communication Disordersis beginning to have some relevant information for the AAC community. While many SLPs equate EBP with research and journal articles, this is only one component. ASHA’s EPB group is working with content area specialists to develop navigable evidence ‘maps’ to highlight information in each of the three pillars of EBP: Clinical Expertise/Expert Opinion, Research, and Client/Family Perspectives. – Professionals working with children and adults who have developmental disabilities may be interested in this Evidence Map on AAC and Cerebral Palsy. Additional evidence maps that have an AAC-related component been developed for dementia, TBI in adults, and autism.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: client perspective, clinical expertise, EBP, research