April 4, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts you might enjoy. Monday – PrAACtically April – More AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Ethical Issues in AAC Thursday – 30 PrAACtical Ideas for Celebrating Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Friday – PráctiCAAmente Conectados Con Links Abril 2021 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: In recognition of Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, here are some autism-related posts to get you in the mood to celebrate those around us who have autism. Building Engagement in Young Students with Autism AACtual Therapy: Making Core Words Fun for Students with Autism Autism and AAC: 5 Pinterest Boards to Follow Evidence-based AAC Strategies for Students with Autism with Betsy Corporale An ABA Perspective on AAC for Students with Autism Before you go, enjoy the ABC’s of Autism support…
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
April 1, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for ways to celebrate Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month in ways that honor people with autism spectrum disorders? Here are a few suggestions. Get flappy with Julia and Abby from Sesame Street. Check out some new autistic YouTubers to follow. Focus on safety. Help families affected by autism take preventative action with this helpful kit. Attend, create, or volunteer at an event that is accepting of people with neurological differences. I’m a huge fan of The Friendship Journey and their Wings of Friendship Virtual Camp and Virtual Hangouts. Read autistic authors, like Alyssa Hillary Zisk, who also wrote a guest post here. You can get access to one of their recent works, AAC for Speaking Autistic Adults: Overview and Recommendations, co-authored with Elizabeth Dalton. Learn more about what makes a narrative a social story or comic book conversation as opposed to something else by reviewing the guidelines for sentence types... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: ASD, autism acceptance month
March 29, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Whether you are a parent trying to keep your child’s AAC skills up or a professional who is providing AAC support, we hope that our monthly Year of Core Vocabulary posts help you stay focused and keep your learners using their AAC skills. In today’s post, we share some ideas for boosting core word learning throughout the week, focusing on a small set of words. Whether you are following along with the Set 1 (12 words/month) or the Set 2 words (16 words/month; Different than the previous core words), or are just getting started, this post has some helpful resources. Our words for this month are as follows. Set 1 List: big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who Set 2 List: blue, brother, close, family, head, last, long, no, old, right, scared, soft, thing, top, wash, whole We have some specific ideas for how to build a learning... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Vocabulary Words, core vocabulary
March 28, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that you might enjoy. Monday – How We Do It: Navigating Successful Post-Secondary Transitions in a Virtual World Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Developing & Using Communication Passports Thursday – School Year of Core Vocabulary Words: AAC Resources for Month 9 (April) by Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, & Beth Lytle ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for some resources to use in your AAC work? Check out some of those listed below. AAC 101 Flipbook Communication Partner Data Collection Form AAC Skills: Caught or Taught? AAC Modeling Handout Repairing Communication Breakdowns
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 25, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Before we turn the page on the calendar, here’s the April post in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words Series by guest authors Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, and Beth Lytle. This series focuses on a selected set of words to highlight for the month along with a suggested order in which to teach them. Therapists and teachers will appreciate the Activity Packets, containing suggestions for highlighting these words in a variety of activities. Their Data Collection Forms and tips on using shared reading in our AAC teaching are appropriate for AAC learners of various ages. If you are new to this series, you may want to review the introduction that our series authors created before delving into this month’s target words. You can see series overview here. You can also review the first 8 months of the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words using the links at the bottom... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary
March 22, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
AAC professionals can provide a great deal of support to help students prepare for post-school life. Today, guest authors Meredith Gohsman, Jamie Lawson, Heather Patton, and Melanie Melton team up to share their thoughts on helping students who use AAC move successfully toward this transition. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Speech-language pathologists, educators, and other AAC stakeholders all share responsibility in preparing students for successful post-secondary transition. The need to explicitly address post-secondary transition is well-established. Despite benefits of employment for both the employer and employee (McNaughton et al., 2002; McNaughton et al., 2003), individuals using AAC are unemployed at a staggering rate. For individuals using AAC, communication remains a vital component in the workplace (Bryen et al., 2007). Communication interactions and skills are associated with income, as well as job options (Mank et al., 1997; McNaughton & Bryen, 2007; McNaughton & Richardson, 2013). This includes all 5 communicative competencies: Linguistic Competence: Mastery of... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 21, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts from our prAACtical week. Monday – TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘The Skin You Live In’! Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Language Learning AACtivities Thursday – Readiness: 7 Days of AACtion ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for some AAC materials? We pulled out a few from the AAC Toolbox just for you. Spelling Boards & FlipBook– Letter boards (alpha & QWERTY) used at Camp Alec; Created by Tina Moreno Visual Supports Wiki Resources from OCPS – See also How We Do It: Essential TRICKs for Supporting AAC in Schools, Part 1 How I Communicate – Template for a Gesture Dictionary Communicare Language Board Templates – Communication board templates for the post “How We Do It: Using Language Boards to Support AAC Use” Colorful Connections – Templates for teaching modified Fitzgerald Key and Goossens’, Crain, & Elder color-coding schemas
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 18, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
More frequent flooding, longer and deadlier fire seasons, increasingly intense hurricanes and other storms, the threat of earthquakes and tsunamis, powerful tornadoes. We’ve all seen reports that severe weather events are on the rise and too many have had personal experience with this. But, for many of us, the idea of preparing for the possibility of a major event that would disrupt access to AAC supports is ‘the good idea that we never get around to implementing.’ How well would the AAC users in your life cope if they had to quickly evacuate to a shelter or even shelter in place without power or water for an extended period of time? Would they have a way to communicate with unfamiliar partners if they became separated from caregivers? Would they have their essentials, such as medication, g-tube or catheter supplies, and adaptive feeding equipment? Would they be able to access back-ups... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: emergency preparedness
March 15, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
We are back with lots of great core vocabulary resources in another edition in the TELL ME About It series. In today’s post, AAC SLPs Maggie Judson and Jeanna Antrim share ideas for language learning with the book ‘The Skin You Live In.’ Maggie and Jeanna are speech-language pathologists who work in the Assistive Technology Department for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative (BASSC) in southern Illinois. They are AT/AAC facilitators and provide evaluations, direct therapy, consultations, and trainings with school teams. Check out the video read-alouds using 3 different AAC apps, and their ideas for classroom activities, e-learning, supporting AAC learning at home, and more. Also, don’t miss their tips for dealing with communication breakdowns. To read more about how they prepare for a TELL ME week and see resources that are based on other books take a look at their previous posts in the TELL ME About It... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: communication breakdown, core vocabulary, predictable chart writing, shared reading, TELL ME
March 14, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. We have a handful of AAC posts for you. Monday – AAC in Secondary School: Using Surveys to Support Language Learning Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC Modeling at Home Thursday – Repetition & Perseveration on AAC Devices: 5 Things to Try ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Stick around for a bit more if you can. Here are some posts that may be of interest. Let’s Go Outside! 5 PrAACtical Ideas At the Very Beginning: Working with Pre-Intentional Communicators Sometimes I Feel Sunny AAC Access for Individuals with Significant Motor Limitations Through Partner Assisted Scanning Supporting AAC Learners in Emergent Writing: 5 Helpful Resources
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking