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January 2, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
With 2022 in the rear-view mirror, we’re excited to welcome some prAACtical additions in the New Year. Here are a few things to watch for in the months to come. AAC Implementation Series PrAACtical AAC contributor Vicki Clarke will be back with a limited series on strengthening our AAC practices. Here’s what she shared about the direction of this series. The journey from acquiring an AAC system to using it to communicate autonomously is a long one, with many different routes. Knowing where to begin is a challenge for all of us! AAC 101 Steps of Learning Process is our effort to define this process in our schools, to help professionals and families support their students. In this series of posts, we are considering 5 steps, to move from training to talking, offering a defined path for you and your student learner. Learning to communicate is a shared journey between... [Read More...]
December 28, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Videos are a great tool for building our AAC knowledge base and strengthening our implementation practices. Here are the ones that were most popular in 2022. Helping School Staff Model AAC in the Classroom Introduction to the Communication Matrix Resources AAC Modeling at Home AAC Apps for Visual Scene Displays Dealing with Emotions, AAC Style AAC with Eddie the Elephant Getting Familiar with Partner-Assisted Scanning TELL ME – AAC in the Preschool Classroom Getting Started with Eye Gaze SGDs Video Models & Visual Supports for AAC Look for more helpful videos on AAC and related topics in 2023. Happy New Year, everyone!
December 22, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for some last-minute activities to use in your AAC work? Here are some AAC-friendly materials to explore. Communication Boards for Hanukkah and Christmas for AAC Users by Susan Berkowitz Help Santa by Joyful Occupational Therapy Pete the Cat’s 12 Groovy Days of Christmas Visual Supplement by Paige Sullivan Christmas Helpers Adapted Book EASY READER (Autism Support) by Alicia Mitchell Santa Emotions Boom Cards™ by Speechie Adventures There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell – Companion AAC Materials by Weave Chat AAC The Ninjabread Man (by C.J. Leigh) – AAC Companion Material by Weave Chat AAC How the Grinch Stole Christmas Adapted Book for Autism / Special Education by Anna Waddell Christmas Visual Grounding Mindfulness Activity by Behavior Belle Christmas Conversation Starters Visuals Task Cards Social Skills by LitRead Christmas Cookie AAC Mat by Sped Ventures Christmas Core Vocabulary Book by B and B SLP No Print Boom... [Read More...]
December 2, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Each month we feature a Spanish version of our AAC Link Up, CAA con Links. If you have AAC-related announcements, materials, or videos in Spanish that you would like others to know about, we’d love to have you add that information below. Also, please share this with anyone who might be interested in contributing to or using the materials that get added to these posts. You’ll find the place to add that information at the very bottom of this post. Organized by Claudia Marimón, these monthly posts also feature AAC work being done in Spanish-speaking countries and offer translations of material that can help families and service providers. Today’s post focuses on supporting literacy and AAC featuring a fun Christmas book. Take a look and don’t forget to scroll to the bottom to add your link and see what others are sharing. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Comenzando Diciembre queremos invitar a nuestra comunidad... [Read More...]
December 1, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
In 2013, when schools and other clinical programs were expanding their emphasis on teaching core vocabulary words, PrAACtical AAC published 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 Lego, and... [Read More...]
November 14, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
There are many paths to successful AAC use. For some people, access to language-rich AAC tools and communication partners who model AAC, use naturalistic methods of eliciting language, offer adequate wait time, and respond to communicative attempts in supportive ways, is sufficient. Many individuals, however, need additional support to develop robust language and AAC skills. For them, explicit AAC instruction can be very beneficial. In a previous post, we shared thoughts on strengthening our AAC services with the use of thoughtful instructional sequences. Discrimination learning can play a helpful role in sequencing our instructional activities. Learning to discriminate between one thing and another is a part of typical language development. Babies learn to discriminate between phonemes (e.g., /ma/ vs /ba/), for example. It also helps them to determine that ‘dog’ applies to some 4-legged, furry critters and not to others. As children mature, they learn a variety of linguistic concepts using... [Read More...]
November 7, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Access to robust AAC tools? Check! Consistent use of aided language input? Check! High-interest activities or materials? Check! Supportive interaction style? Check! Kudos to those professionals whose AAC practices include these important elements. In today’s post, we offer a suggestion for those who seek to strengthen their support and boost AAC learning even further: To maximize gains, be thoughtful in selecting or creating instructional activities and pay special attention as to how those activities are sequenced. Create and use well-planned instructional sequences to help AAC learners gain linguistic competence. Language learning is complex. We don’t go from 1-word utterances to complex sentences in a single step. Our language doesn’t progress from basic to advanced in one swift leap. It happens over time and with the right opportunities for learning and practice. Instructional sequences are a powerful means of providing those opportunities. These are specific processes that professionals use to teach... [Read More...]
November 3, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
We’re sharing some ideas for AAC learning based on a previous post by the late Dr. Robin Parker. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Language learning involves talking about events in the past, present, and future. Since Halloween is over, it is a perfect opportunity to help AAC users talk about past events. Here are 5 tips for getting started. Use a weekly or monthly (calendar) schedule to ‘remember’ Halloween, or if you are sticking to core words to remember the “great day” or “bad day” depending upon the experience. Use photos of the Halloween festivities to discuss what happened and what everyone did. You can use these to discuss costumes, decorations, the best/worst part of the day, etc. Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast Halloween experiences. This can be done by comparing two people, places, or anything else. For some learners, you can use images to put Halloween things that everyone saw... [Read More...]
October 3, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Established in 2007 by ISAAC’s LEAD Committee, AAC Awareness month invites us to spread the word about all things AAC, and it’s pretty exciting to think back on all we’ve done and also to plan for the current year. Each week during AAC Awareness Month we’ll share suggestions for things to do to help others learn about a field that emerged to support children and adults with complex communication needs. This week, we’ll focus on hands-on activities. A popular approach to AAC Awareness Month is to invite a group of colleagues or families to come together and communicate only through AAC for the event. Some years, we’ve held ‘Silent Snack’ events before class where we put out a variety of board games and invited some of our AAC clients to come in and play along. They enjoyed serving as our AAC Ambassadors, meeting new people, and ‘wow-ing’ the crowd with... [Read More...]
September 11, 2022
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. We have some AAC reading that you might appreciate. Monday – PrAACtical Thoughts on Labor Day Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Video Models & Visual Supports for AAC Thursday – Throwback Thursday: Supporting Early Communication with AAC ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Still have time for a bit more? Here’s a sampling of past posts for you to browse. PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: Apples AAC Partner Training Strategies AAC Device Mounting Fundamentals AACtual Therapy: From PECS to iPad with Jason Butcher 5 Things We’ve Learned from Our AAC Families Understanding and Supporting Families of AAC Learners