About This Week Welcome to Week 14! Reading takes center stage for a second week of our Stepping into AAC journey. You will explore the following concepts this week: AACtion Steps Week 14 AACtion Steps Signposts Get the Handout Descriptive Talking Travelog Week 14 Travelog Print the Week Want all of the resources shared in this week of Stepping into AAC? Download the entire digital bundle by clicking the download button below.
Across the world, AAC teams are looking for ways to strengthen their support of multilingual individuals with complex communication needs. In this article, guest authors Hsiao-Ting Su and Wen-Hsin Ku, who are both bilingual Mandarin-English SLPs, share their thoughts. AAC Intervention for Multicultural Families – Similarities and Differences Across Cultures Though there are limited AAC resources in minority languages at this time, SLPs should make every effort to meet the needs of multicultural families. It is crucial for SLPs to keep cultural differences in mind when working with multicultural families. As two bilingual English-Mandarin-speaking SLPs who have worked with both families in the U.S. and Taiwan, we have first-hand experience navigating similarities and differences across cultures. Here, we describe some of the similarities and differences we have encountered most frequently. Similarities: Families worry that AAC will hinder verbal communication development Families need reassurance that it is okay for children to... [Read More...]
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts from our prAACtical week. Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: The Intersection of AAC and Success Thursday – Cultural-Linguistic AAC: Inclusive Practices Using the TELL ME Program & Other Materials ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We’ve got a few more posts for you to browse. On the Same Page: Helping Team Members Recognize and Respond to Unconventional Communication Signals From Referential to Descriptive Teaching with AAC Learners Aided Language Input – How Much Language Should We Model? PrAACtical Resources: Promoting Inclusion and Participation for People Who Use AAC When Students are Reluctant to Use AAC: 5 Things to Try
We are excited to continue our series on multilingual AAC support, guest-authored by BilingüeAAC. In today’s post, one member of the team, Melissa Tapia, addresses ways to use specific instructional materials with bilingual individuals. BilingüeAAC is a group of SLPs with a shared belief in providing evidence-based intervention strategies and resources to bilingual Spanish AAC clients, families, caregivers, and professionals. Inclusive Practices Using Tell Me Program & Other Materials How can we effectively conduct inclusive practices in our work settings? What are some approaches or materials that we can use to integrate the culture of the home and community? Why are inclusive practices essential for the success of our students/clients? These are fundamental reflective questions I have found to guide me in collaborative therapy and lead to better participation with and from my clients and their caregivers. We are Bilingue AAC, and we are here to provide helpful tools to... [Read More...]
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts that might come in handy. Monday – September Year of Core Vocabulary & School Year of Core Vocabulary Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC Fundamentals for Families Thursday – Throwback Thursday: AAC Support for Beginning Communicators Friday – PráctiCAAmente Conectados: CAA Con Links – Septiembre 2023 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: In the mood for some more AAC? Here are some selections from our archives. Video Modeling & AAC Boosting Communication with Video Modeling PrAACtical Teaching in the ASD Classroom: Predictable Chart Writing with Core Vocabulary How We Do It: AAC Videos for Core Word Modeling
In 2013, when schools and other clinical programs were expanding their emphasis on teaching core vocabulary words, Robin Parker and I developed a set of resources for families and professionals that included symbol cards, sample sentences to model, activity suggestions, and more. All of these were based on a small set of core words for each month (see that post here). We followed that with a second set of Year of Core Vocabulary Word resources for a new list of words (click here for that post). Over the years, the resources were expanded and grew to include a wonderful series of calendars with daily activity suggestions developed by AAC SLP and co-founder of Talking AAC, Rachael Langley. There were many other contributors over the years who added to these efforts. In 2020, a new series was launched, School Year of Core Vocabulary Words, authored by guest contributors Michaela Sullivan, Alisa... [Read More...]
About Week 1 Welcome to Week 1 of your Stepping into AAC journey! You’ll begin this week by selecting a starter AAC tool for your learner. The resources below include a stepwise guide to help you choose one. You will need this for hands-on activities during each week of your Stepping Into AAC journey. If you already have an AAC tool with core vocabulary words, such as a speech-generating device, AAC app, or communication book, you can skip this step and use that tool instead. With your AAC tool ready, you’ll work through the following concepts this week: The 20 weeks of your Stepping Into AAC journey cover a lot of territory. The graphic below shows the major topics and themes covered in each week of the program and the focus of the hands-on activities, videos, and newsletter resources. Introduction to 100 Days of AAC Choosing an AAC Tool Get... [Read More...]
Welcome to Stepping into AAC ! Stepping into AAC is a collaborative project created by PrAACtical AAC and the Angelman Syndrome Foundation (ASF) that focuses on supporting families who want to integrate AAC into their lives. There are 20 weeks of Stepping into AAC materials, which are intended to provide simple, week-by-week resources to help families support beginning communicators of all ages. Each week, there are easy hands-on activities, videos and companion handouts, and a newsletter to learn from. Thanks to the generous support of the ASF, these materials are available at no charge. Stepping into AAC is designed for families that include: Children, adolescents, and adults who are new to AAC and would benefit from using communication aids with high-frequency words or core vocabulary; and Individuals of any age who previously used AAC but are not currently communicating with it throughout the day. We hope that Stepping into AAC... [Read More...]
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts you might enjoy. Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: A Deep Dive into AAC Modeling Thursday – August Year of Core Vocabulary & School Year of Core Vocabulary Words :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Here are a few more to explore before you go. Why We Love Language Experience Activities 5 Things to Do If You’re Not Confident Teaching Core Vocabulary Building Sentence Length through Conversational Routines & Games 5 Quick & Easy Games That Build AAC Skills 5 Ways to Promote Generalization of AAC Use Have a great week, AAC friends!
Our series on multilingual AAC support guest authored by BilingüeAAC continues. In today’s post, Sarah Lee addresses issues specific to features of AAC apps and SGDs. BilingüeAAC is a group of SLPs with a shared belief in providing evidence-based intervention strategies and resources to bilingual Spanish AAC clients, families, caregivers, and professionals. If you are new to this series, you can check out the previous articles using the links below. Bilingual AAC Support from Monolingual Professionals: An Introduction Cultural-Linguistic AAC Intervention: A Framework for Consideration Gathering Information from Families with Questionnaires and Surveys Most of us WANT to provide culturally-linguistic responsive bilingual Spanish AAC intervention, but we don’t feel confident without knowing/speaking the language. In an effort to foster Spanish heritage language development and empower the monolingual SLPs*, we have created context-specific templates using the sociocultural approach (Soto & Yu, 2014) for the monolingual English-speaking SLP*. We will be referencing... [Read More...]