January 20, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
There’s an art to having a conversation with someone who has significant communication challenges. One of my favorite experiences with this dates back to the 1980’s, when I was working with a preschooler who had Rett Syndrome. Julia was a beautiful little girl who lived with her (very young) mom and her grandma. Grandma watched Julia while mom was in school, and I spent a good amount of time visiting them in their modest home (a trailer) trying to earn their trust and figure out how to help Julia communicate better in school. – At home, as it turns out, she was communicating just fine, at least for the very basic things. A typical conversation between Julia and her grandma went like this. Julia paces around the coffee table, wringing her hands, rocking a bit, and staring at the carpet. She pauses in front of the TV and Grandma says... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking, Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: communicative acts, Conversations, Multimodal
January 18, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It’s great to have some places to turn to when we need answers to AAC questions, resources to share, and the like. Here are some of the AAC groups that we’ve been able to count on for support. 1. ACOLUG: An oldie but a goodie. Run by Diane Bryen and Tracy Rackenberger, this email list is primarily a venue for people who use AAC to connect with one another but, in the spirit of inclusion, keeps the list open to professionals and students as well. 2. ASHA SIG 12: We can always count on their quarterly publication, Perspectives on AAC, and the online AAC community for support and pertinent information. We miss their annual conference, though! 3. Communication Matters AAC Forum : The ISAAC UK Chapter runs this and it is chock full of helpful information. We love the search feature and the digest options. 4. PACT: Promoting Augmentative Communication... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: resources
January 17, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
We’re super excited to see more and more AAC apps give real attention to core language. There are plenty of AAC tools and apps that allow for choicemaking, requesting, and other types of functional communication. Not all of them, however, have the key ingredients for the development of linguistic competence. We’ll be talking more about that in future posts, but for now, let’s just celebrate the fact that more AAC apps have what it takes for us to teach morphology and syntax.Speak for Yourself is one of the newest kids on the block and it looks like this one was worth waiting for. Developed by two SLPs, Heidi LoStracco and Renee Collender, Speak for Yourself piqued my interest when I saw it at the ASHA convention in San Diego. We’re having fun exploring what it can do and looking forward to using Speak for Yourself with some of our AAC... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, core language, linguistic competence
January 16, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Just returned from the 19th Annual Statewide Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) Conference (under full disclosure, I am the Director of the CARD Grant at NSU). It was a very busy long weekend that began with a free pre-conference educators day and ended with one of the 47 session options. I have tweeted some educational highlights that included a keynote by Dr. Amy Wetherby about the new DSM 5 (thats right no more Roman Numeral) diagnostic features for Autism Spectrum Disorder (that’s right again, no ‘s’ on the end) and a dinner party talk by Dr. Temple Grandin (wow!). I tend to look at conference information as a teaser… first information is highlighted and then I do a more in-depth review and analysis into specifics that are related to me. Quick Info on My First 3 Favorite Topics/Resources The Learning Curve– resources that include interesting and interactive materials for teachers of... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD, CARD, conferences
January 15, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Sean Sweeney, from Speech Techies, always has great ideas for free or low cost apps or web-based materials that have wonderful therapeutic potential. Recently, he posted about Painting with Time, a free app that you can read about here. It’s such a cool app that we decided to use it to launch our Magic Moments series. – Magic Moments is an occasional series that gives PrAACtical suggestions for therapy materials, apps, software, and websites that are easy for SLPs to access and use in their clinical work. We’ll focus on materials that many of us already own and use, as well as on free or nearly free materials. Sometimes the materials will be electronic, like iPad apps or software. Other times, we’ll go ‘old school’ and bring out some of our favorite therapy materials, like toys, games, photo albums, and more. The focus will be on using those materials to teach language... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, intervention, iPad, Magic Moments
January 13, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Like you, we are always looking at ways to take communication and language to the next level. We’re never really satisfied. Although we may be thrilled with things that our AAC friends are doing now, we can’t stop thinking about the next step. And often that involves helping communication partners facilitate the language learning process. When multimodal communicators interact, we try to react to solidify the language learning. Here’s are some of the things that have helped communication partners we’ve worked with. We’re learning to REACT by responding, expanding, acting, commenting, and turn-taking. 1. Respond to the Intent. What is the communicator trying to tell you? If you know what, then start doing it. If you’re not sure, take your best guess and start doing it. For the emerging communicator, respond quickly. For the more established communicator, begin to respond quickly so they know that you ‘got’ the message,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: expression, facial expression, partners, symbol
January 11, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Thinking about getting an AAC app for someone you know with significant communication difficulties? There are some exciting options out there and more AAC apps are being released all the time. It’s easy to get caught up in the possibilities and click on the harmless little ‘buy’ button. We know. We’ve done it, too. And learned from it. So, next time you are thinking about buying an AAC app, stop for a second and take A GULP: Ask: What do I want the person to be able to do with this app? An app for generative language has very different specs than and app for choice-making. Get a comprehensive list of AAC apps, like this one from Spectronics, or consider a product like AAC Apps Assistant . Explore the product videos on iTunes, YouTube or at the vendor’s website. Use a feature match approach to assessment to ensure a good... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, assessment, iPad
January 9, 2012
by Robin Parker -
This website has been a product of passion, energy, and more than a lot of years of philosophy. Carole and I work with different clinical populations a lot of the time however, our strategies and philosophies have always seemed to be very similar from the day we met when Carole worked with a young boy named Robert. Carole single handedly showed me the power of AAC for pediatric clinical popultations. It has been a journey, I hope of learning together and one that has made most days at the office exciting and productive. We have impacted many graduate student clinicians and families but still feel so many individuals with communication challenges are not given a fair chance at equal participation at school or in the community. We have the AAC philosophy and continue to learn more with each person we meet. But this project of getting the word out... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
January 8, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
A colleague and I taught a workshop awhile back where there was an interesting sidebar conversation. A special educator was trying to convince an administrator that even though her student used a high tech speech generating device (SGD), she still needed the software to create other communication tools, like language boards and visual schedules. Having spent a great deal of money on AAC technology, the administrator was reluctant to commit additional funds for that authoring software. “She has a $5,000 device,” Sally Supervisor said. “Now you’re telling me you need special software to make things you can print out on paper?”The teacher’s point, of course, was a valid one. Children with AAC needs, like the rest of us, communicate in a variety of ways. In most cases, they need access to a variety of tools and the training to use them effectively. Just like we do.We gesture. We write with... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking, Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: access, apraxia, iPad, modes of communication, tech, visual schedule
January 8, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Resolution #2: Get the word out that USING visual supports can help improve behavior: 5 Visual Supports to Make it Easy (it’s more about what WE do – then compliance of the student) 1. Choice Boards 2. First- Then Board 3. Stop/Go Signs 4. Border Tape 5. Break Card
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: choice boards