July 2, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Following along with our Year of Core Words or another approach to building core vocabulary? Our latest flipbook has suggestions for sentences you can model throughout the day. This set corresponds to our Year of Core Vocabulary July words but can be used with any AAC system that contains these words. You can print them in black and white or colored paper for a bit of fun. Click here for the link to download this file.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, download
June 28, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
We’re so pleased to welcome back Dr. Carol Goossens’, an AAC pioneer who is an internationally-recognized consultant, SLP, and Special Educator from New York. Throughout her career, she has consulted extensively in a variety of classrooms serving the full spectrum of children with special needs. Dr. Goossens’ has presented both nationally and internationally about her collaborative work with teachers, therapists, and families. In today’s post, she shares a treasure trove of ideas on using wearable AAC. Learn more about her approach to using vest displays in this extensive post. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Using Vest Displays with Preschoolers on the Autism Spectrum When working with students on the spectrum, we often struggle to gain and maintain their attention, especially during group activities such as Circle Time/Morning Meeting. The songs offered during Circle Time, however, create a great forum for working on a variety of communication skills, e.g., claiming a turn, announcing a song, choosing... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Carol Goossens', communication displays, no tech, preschool, visual supports
June 25, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Know anyone who has access to AAC tools but doesn’t yet use them throughout the day? Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for awhile but doesn’t use it as frequently as her team had hoped. Hudson is transitioning from PECS to an AAC device with more robust language. While different in many ways, each of these learners has a common need: frequent opportunities to learn about and use core vocabulary. To accomplish this, their SLPs, teachers, and families select a dozen or so core words and pay special attention to those each month. That allows them to highlight this small group of words using focused language stimulation, aided language input, and specific activities designed to teach or practice them. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that. Set 1 (A... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Another Year of Core Words, Year of Core Words
June 21, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Working with people are beginning to use eye gaze for communication? If so, you may be interested in these helpful guides from CALL Scotland. Enjoy! Eye Gaze Software Eye Gaze Set-up
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: CALL Scotland, eye gaze
June 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for more ways to build AAC skills? Book reading can be incorporated into therapy sessions and instructional lessons, as well as part of the daily routine at home. Here are some ideas for using books to support AAC and language learning. Choosing a book: In most cases, we want the AAC learner to have the autonomy to choose a book. However, we can make this part of the AAC learning process by teaching the skill of choosing something to read and talking about it before the learner makes his/her choice. Goal Areas: We can use this time to build basic turn-taking skills, requesting, sentence-building, and new vocabulary, among other things. It’s also a great opportunity to develop more advanced syntax using words like ‘since’ and ‘because’ (e.g., “I want to read about sport because it is World Cup time.”) and various sentence structures (e.g., “First, let’s read a sports... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Books, reading
June 14, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for ways to help the team remember to model and elicit core words? Visual supports work for adults, too! This handy flipbook has sentence suggestions for the June Year of Core Vocabulary words, but you can use it with any AAC system that has core vocabulary. Print in black and white on plain paper or choose some brightly colored cardstock to give it a pop. You can download the file here.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: A Year of Core Words, download, flipbook
June 11, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Vicki Clarke, CEO of Dynamic Therapy Associates and Director of DTA Schools, is back with another wonderful edition of AAC Assessment Corner. In addition to their clinic, Vicki and her team support school districts in AAC evaluation, equipment procurement, and implementation for individual students in the academic environment. DTA Schools also supports district-wide AAC implementation through the Classroom Communication Goals Project, training, and supporting all team members in classroom AAC implementation. In today’s post, Vicki shares her thoughts on how we can look at the use of AAC symbols for nouns as part of our evaluations for comprehensive AAC systems. You can view her previous contributions to the AAC Assessment Corner here. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Evaluating Skills For Use of Comprehensive AAC Systems, Part 2: Language Representation Elements – Noun Symbol Use for Functional Communication It was a crazy, busy month full of evaluations, trainings, and report writing. I’ve spent a lot of time with... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: assessment, beginning communicator, Vicki Clarke
June 7, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to share a little bit of information about a client’s AAC device, this card may come in handy. The file is editable so that you can customize it to meet your needs. You can download it here.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: downloads, partner instructions
June 4, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Karen Natoci is back just in time for the end of school and the start of summer break. Karen is an AAC Supervisor with The Speech Pathology Group in Walnut Creek, California. In this post, she gets us thinking about summer and shares suggested extension activities for home and a lesson plan for how to implement these materials at the return of school after summer break. Be sure to download the packet of materials using the link at the bottom of this page. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Book: How Do You Know It’s Summer? (Rookie Read-About Science) by Lisa M. Herrington It’s time to wrap up the school year! In the northern hemisphere, we are looking forward to summer break or a more relaxed school schedule. This is a great book to kick off the final week of school and to send along summer homework in preparation for the first week of school. The... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Karen Natoci, lesson plan, reading
May 31, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Aided language input, the practice of modeling AAC when speaking to those who are trying to learn AAC, is a pivotal intervention strategy. It has been shown to support comprehension and expression, and the development of early sentence forms. The evidence suggests it may also support the development of certain grammatical morphemes and verb combinations. You can learn more about the implementation of aided language input here. Here are some of the research studies that support the use of this evidence-based practice. Binger, C., & Light, J. (2007). The effect of aided AAC modeling on the expression of multi-symbol messages by preschoolers who use AAC. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 23, 30–43. Binger, C., Maguire-Marshall, M., & Kent-Walsh, J. (2011). Using aided AAC models, recasts and contrastive targets to teach grammatical morphemes to children who use AAC. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 54, 160–176. Dada, S., & Alant, E. (2009). The... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: aided language input, EBP, modeling, research