February 8, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It feels awfully strange being a newbie again. We’re certainly not new to AAC. And we’re not new to talking about it either, having worked with families, graduate students, and other professionals for more than two decades. But, somehow, this whole blogging thing and sharing our thoughts with the wider world in this way seems a bit daunting. Even in our second month, it gives us pause. Nevertheless, it’s time. – Time to put our ideas about making AAC work out there. – Time to add to the conversation about new tools and technologies. – Time to stop repeating the same sorts of things over and over to new crops of graduate students, SLPs, teachers, and families and put it all down in writing. – As Dr. David Beukelman once said in an editorial for the AAC journal, “the weakest ink is better than the strongest memory.” When he wrote that in 1995, Dr.... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: blogs
February 7, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for some well-grounded, yet concrete ideas for assessment of early communicators? Communication Matrix is one of my ‘Go To’ places for just that sort of thing. The site is home to a tool that allows you to develop a clear communication profile for someone at the earliest stages of communicative learning. It is not a direct assessment instrument, but rather a systematic way of capturing knowledge gained through observation, interaction with the communicator, and interviewing families and other professionals. The tool itself has been around for over 20 years (I have the paper version on my shelf). Its primary author, Dr. Charity Rowland of the Oregon Health and Science University, has been refining it over the years and developed the online site with the support of the US Department of Education. The profile covers 7 levels of communication, 4 communicative intents, and 9 communication modalities. I’ve been using the online... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, beginning communicators, resources
February 7, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Not only is a Speech Only Approach not good enough, but a Listening Approach is also not good enough… Because even though a young man I know can follow simple directions with contextual cues and his educators ‘feel’ he does not need any additional support, it does not help the young man when he should be doing the task independently. . Because even though a bakery employee I know is usally fine (just a little nervous??) when his job coach explains changes in other employees attendance at work, he sometimes gets so upset he has to leave his job… Because a little girl asks every day (many, many times) to go to Disney World even though her parents and teachers have told her they always go over the summer. And because she now has a formal behavior plan to help her stop perseverating on questions, and becasue this means she... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: calendars, mini schedule, Social Story, visual supports
February 6, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
I’m trying to learn to see the good in all things, even when it is not immediately apparent. Lucky for me, the universe just keeps tossing me opportunities to practice my emerging skill in this area. – Case in point: A phone conversation with an SLP serving a kindergarten child with developmental disabilities. “We’re working on speech right now, especially oral motor exercises. He can almost extend his tongue past his lips. And in the last year he’s been vocalizing a little louder. Oh, and Mom heard him say ‘Pa’ in the car last week, too! I wish progress were faster but he’s come a long way.” – No mention of the fact that he has an expressive vocabulary of, um. ZERO. – No consideration that if we continue with this current rate of learning, he’ll be able to say hist first three-word sentence at about the same time... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: intervention, SLP
February 5, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Disney’s free app, Disneyland Explorer, is literally a walk in the park. We love the quality of the graphics, which are incredibly vivid and reminiscent of the old ViewMaster toy. The app is simple-just some views of Disneyland but because many of our kids have such intense memories of the Florida version of this theme park, it’s a natural for language therapy. Not everyone is lucky enough to live near a Disney park, but even so, there are lots of fun things to explore on this app.Take a peek at a video of the app here and you’ll see what we mean.There are lots of clinical/educational uses for this app, particularly for those kids we know whose lives are punctuated by trips to the Magic Kingdom. Here are some suggestions for AAC users of various ability levels. = Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Disneyland Explorer 1. Multiple opportunities for using AAC... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, Magic Moments
February 4, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Is anyone else totally floored by the stories of good people getting into bad situations that have been in the news lately?? While it can happen to anyone, it is probably true that people who use AAC face a number of safety risks that the rest of us don’t think much about. The people we work with may not have the vocabulary they need to talk about safety issues, report abuse, or even state objections/resistance in a forceful way. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The latest story to cross my inbox made me think of some of our AAC friends and what we, as SLPs and clinical educators, should be doing to provide support. The Canadian organization Augmentative Communication Community Partnerships, has some wonderful resources to help get us started. Among them is a set of communication displays, both text and picture-based, that can be useful to individuals with AAC needs.Originally... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, communication boards, safety
February 4, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Imagine having one key communication strategy and no one knew that it existed. This horrifying experience was documented in the book ‘I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes,’ the autobiography of Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer. For years, she effectively used eye gaze with her family to answer yes/no questions, but when Ruth was placed at a residential facility, things eventually changed. Staff turnover, something we’re all familiar with, was the culprit. With time, new staff came in and didn’t realize that Ruth communicated with her eyes. Ruth was silenced for years until someone noticed that her ‘eyes up’ movement wasn’t reflexive or random. She was talking, but no one was listening. — While this was an extreme example, most AAC practitioners can recount their own stories of people whose AAC messages weren’t effectively translated once they moved to new settings. The transition to a new environment, where untrained partners may fail to recognize... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking, Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: AAC system, collaboration, Multimodal, visual literacy
February 4, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
inspiration /inspəˈrāSHən/ Noun; The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do somethingcreative. The quality of having been so stimulated, esp. when evident in something We’re inspired by: Master clinicians, like Gail Van Tatenhove, John Costello, and Joan Bruno Clinically relevant research, like this work from the AAC Group at Penn State Far-reaching projects, like the work done by Sarah Blackstone and others at the Patient Provider Communication group Supportive publishers, like Paul H. Brookes who keep cranking out top-notch AAC books like this one by Pat Mirenda and Teresa Iacono Groups that make cool things for kids and share them for free, llike Priory Woods
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
February 3, 2012
by Robin Parker -
How we integrated AAC strategies into a community event… The name of our website is PrAACtical AAC. We continue to look for ways to make AAC strategies fit praAACtically into ALL activities. We are extremely proud to be part of the Dan Marino Foundation WalkAbout Autism, which is a large South Florida Community Event. The Walkabout helps raise money services for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families. It also promotes a sense of community collaboration and awareness about autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. We are including this information about the WalkAbout not as a plea for money (although read about the WalkAbout and donate if you are so inclined), but instead to tell you how we are incorporating AAC into community events. This past weekend was the 2nd WalkAbout Autism. It was a truly amazing event and day! There was great music and bounce houses,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: autism spectrum disorder, community, dan marino foundation, implementation ideas, Learning, personal participation, song, south florida community, WalkAbout
January 23, 2012
by Robin Parker -
AAC & The Art of the Unconventional Conversation, Carole’s post from Saturday, recounts a young girl who some people might have thought was not ready for AAC. It reminds me a young man I know, Michael. I met Michael when he was 14, after he was discharged from all of his communication intervention or I should say his speech-language therapy sessions. He was discharged at school because when he moved from his autism classroom in middle school to a high school classroom for children with varying exceptionalities, it was ‘felt’ that he did not need it anymore. He had not made ‘progress’ in his speech and language goals, he did not talk, he did not consistently identify objects, and he did not essentially do a lot of things. He was discharged from his private therapy as he was not making progress in a lot of goals there either. Everyone... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: intervention