March 11, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
It’s not unusual for people who are learning to use AAC to repeat themselves, something we’ve written about before. While it’s not usually a problem, there are times when this is less than desirable. Here are a few things to think about as you determine how to proceed. Look for the meaning. There’s almost always a reason why people repeat things in their AAC systems. We have to do some sleuthing to figure it out, but it’s worth the effort. One memorable example of this was from Candace, who kept navigating away from what I had planned for us to talk about and repeating things about camp. Initially, I didn’t think much of it, but when she persisted, I did some digging and eventually found out that something pretty scary happened to her there. Those repetitions were probably the best way she could think of to engage me in a... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: language therapy
March 8, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
It’s a great day to explore ways to support AAC use, and today AAC SLP Ashley Larisey joins us with some activity suggestions and lots of implementation tips. Ashley is an SLP at Community High School District 218 in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She is also an Adjunct Clinical Supervisor and Instructor at Saint Xavier University. This post, part of the AAC in Secondary School series, focuses on the use of language experience surveys with students who are learning to use AAC. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Surveys Surveys can be used within almost any classroom activity to provide students with opportunities to communicate with both familiar and non-familiar listeners. Questions that are used for the survey can be used to gather more information about a topic that guides decision-making. Surveys can be embedded into academic, social, vocational, and community-based instruction. Take a look at some examples of how to use surveys in your classroom... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: education, high school, teens
March 7, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that you may have missed. Monday – A PrAACtical March: Resources for A Year of Core Vocabulary Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Feature Matching in AAC Thursday – School-based SLPs: Confidence in AAC Assessment Friday – PráctiCAAmente Conectados Con Links – Marzo 2021 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Still in the mood for some more AAC? Here are a handful of previous posts to explore. Video of the Week: On Using Symbols with Beginning Communicators Video of the Week: Object Symbols and Core Vocabulary A PrAACtical Look at Getting Started with AAC Symbols Fast FAACt Friday: On Symbols and Reading Core Vocabulary: Making Sense of Symbols
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
March 4, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Many practicing SLPs had limited opportunities to learn about the practice of AAC during their graduate studies and even those who did probably had insufficient training and mentorship in doing AAC assessments. In this post, guest author Dr. Eric Sanders, Assistant Professor at Moravian College, discusses his research on how school-based SLPs feel about evaluating students who need AAC devices. School-based SLPs: Confidence in AAC Assessment As a former school-based SLP AAC specialist and current researcher, one of the things that I am interested in is trying to determine ways to better understand how services are provided to students who require AAC in schools in order to figure out ways to ultimately improve those services. One of the areas that has received little research interest in school-based AAC services is assessment and feature matching. There are a few likely reasons for this. AAC assessment can be very complicated,... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: pre-service AAC, slps
March 1, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Do the AAC users in your life use only a fraction of the core words in their SGD, AAC app, or communication board? One way to help them move forward is to make a concerted effort to use, highlight, and provide additional teaching on a variety of words. It’s hard to do this without getting overwhelmed, so find a strategy that works for you. A few years ago, we decided to approach this by focusing on 12-16 core words each month. (If this is too much for the teams with whom you work, that’s not a problem. Just cut it back to 4-6 words/month.) Each month, we can highlight those words in our conversation (aided language input), direct intervention, and home programming activities with AAC learners. The repeated experiences with those 12-16 (or 4-6) words help our AAC learners develop new skills, and keeps the team focused on the same destination. ... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 28, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that you may have missed. Monday – TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘I Like It When’! Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Comprehensive Literacy Instruction in AAC Thursday – School Year of Core Vocabulary Words: AAC Resources for Month 8 (March) by Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, & Beth Lytle ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Some of our AAC friends are beginning to prepare for upcoming IEPs so our thoughts have been turning to the classroom, curriculum, and academics. Here are some of the posts we’ve been revisiting. Take a look. Integrating AAC Instruction with Curriculum Standards Research Tuesday: Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities Educating Students with Complex Support Needs in a Standards-Aligned System PrAACtical Partnerships: AAC and Academics Helping the General Education Team Support Students Who Use AAC
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 25, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Welcome to a new post in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words Series! Guest authors Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, and Beth Lytle are back to focus on a selected set of words to highlight for the month. In addition to their wonderful Activity Packets, containing sheets on highlighting these words in a variety of activities, they also share helpful tips for expanding language. Finally, don’t miss the data collection forms specific to Level 1 and Level 2 words. 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 the guest authors’ overview here. You can also review the first 7 months of the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words using the links at the bottom of this post. A SCHOOL YEAR OF CORE- INTRODUCTION- MARCH To the parents, teachers, Speech-Language... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 22, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
AAC SLPs Jeanna Antrim and Maggie Judson return to these pages for another guest post the TELL ME About It series. Today, they focus on the teaching opportunities in the book ‘I Like It When’! 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. In this post, they share their ideas for classroom activities, e-learning, supporting AAC learning at home, and more. TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘I Like It When’! TELL ME About The Book The sixth book in this new series is “I Like It When” by Mary Murphy. Such a fun book to use for shared reading, with its simple text, repeated lines, and engaging illustrations. Also, it’s chock full of embedded text (text that is... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 21, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Here are some posts that you might enjoy. Monday – PrAACtical Resources: Free Web-based AAC with Cboard Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: The Professional’s Role in Emergency Planning for People who Use AAC :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: If you have the time, here are some past posts to browse. AAC Skills Assessment for Direct Selectors Selecting AAC Apps & Devices: A Handful of Reasons Not to Skip the Trial Period Observational Assessment of Beginning Communicators Bilingual AAC Assessment Tips by Lindsay Oesch Say What?!? AAC Assessment for Children Who Speak with Dr. Jill Senner and Matthew Baud
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
February 15, 2021
by Carole Zangari -
Today, we welcome Katrina Cohen Cosentino, Head of Communications at Cboard app. Katrina has been working with Cboard, a free web-based AAC app, for the past 3 years. Cboard uses the Mulberry Symbol Set and is available in more than 40 languages. In today’s post, she gives an overview of what Cboard is, how it started, and how it works. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Cboard can be accessed here: www.cboard.io Cboard is a free AAC web app for children and adults with speech and language impairments, aiding communication with symbols and text-to-speech. Cboard is funded by UNICEF. Who are we? We are an international group of professionals whose sole goal is to develop a free and open-source communication aid for people around the world. Co-founder of Cboard and Developer Martin Bedouret began the project after being diagnosed with ALS in 2015, along with an Israeli programmer. The idea stemmed from a conversation with... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking