159 Search Results for CAA
May 26, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Hope you had a wonderful week, AAC friends. Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtically June: More AAC Resources for A Year of Core Vocabulary Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Is AAC the Right Choice for Adults with Developmental Disabilities? Thursday – AACtual Therapy: AAC, Literacy and Squishy Books Before you go, we’ve got a few more topics that may be of interest. Building Sentence Length Through Conversational Routines and Games Be More with Core Helping Learners Build Self-regulation Skills Helping Students with Autism Prepare for Non-routine Events It’s PrAACtically Memorial Day! Join the fun! More info here.
May 23, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for a fun way to integrate more emergent literacy into your AAC work? You’re in the right place! Today, SLPs Maggie Judson and Jeanna Antrim share one of their many ideas for engaging therapy sessions. Maggie and Jeanna 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. You can see a previous guest post that Jeanna wrote here. Let’s hear how they make and use squishy books in their therapy sessions. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: AAC, Literacy and Squishy Books If you’ve done any reading or research around the topic of AAC and literacy, you know that students with complex communication needs do not typically get the same kinds of experiences with literacy activities as do their peers (Light & Kent-Walsh, 2003). So we are always on the... [Read More...]
May 2, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
If it’s May, it must be Better Hearing and Speech Month (#BSHM), and we’re thrilled to kick off the festivities by two Illinois-based SLPs, Dr. Jill Senner and Matt Baud. They have a wealth of AAC experience and have generously shared their expertise here in several previous posts. Today, we welcome them back as they share some advice on helping staff use AAC in natural settings. Enjoy! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Put Me in, Coach: Coaching AAC Use in the Natural Environment “Help, I already trained the team and the device is still not being used outside of my sessions.” Sound familiar? We hear this a lot. This actually is quite common if one key training element is missing. In fact, without this critical instructional component, there’s only about a 5% chance that the strategies you’re teaching will actually be used in the natural environment. What is the essential ingredient to maximizing your... [Read More...]
March 3, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Is it really Sunday already? If you’re catching up on your AAC reading, here are the posts we published this past week. Monday – PrAACtically March: AAC Resources for a Year of Core Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Supporting Emergent Communicators Thursday – Throwback Thursday: An AAC ‘Funny Area’ Solution :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: And while you’re here, check out some of the other AAC-related websites we’ve featured in the past. Miami Dade County PreKindergarten Program for Children with Disabilities Centre for AAC (CAAC) AT Makers SCOPE AAC Funding Help Have a great week, AAC friends!
February 21, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
We have deep respect for clinicians and educators who are willing to share their approach to developing strong AAC instructional sessions. Today, we are excited to welcome SLP Jeanna Antrim to these pages. Jeanna has been an SLP for the past 7 years practicing at special education cooperatives in southern Illinois. She works both with students in a self-contained behavior school and as an AAC facilitator conducting AAC evaluations, providing direct therapy, and consulting with school teams. In this post, she shares her approach to developing AAC sessions using shared reading. (Don’t miss her book packet and handouts.) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: How I Do It: Literacy, Language, and AAC After graduating, it took me a few years of trial and error before I figured out (and don’t get me wrong I’m still figuring out) my niche. I absolutely love books and love how I can target any language and communication concept within a... [Read More...]
July 30, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
self-ad·vo·ca·cy: self ˈadvəkəsē/ Noun: the action of representing oneself or one’s views or interests. —————————- Empowering AAC learners to advocate for themselves may be one of the most important and impactful things that we can do to help them stay safe and achieve their goals. Here are some ways we can support that process. Provide messages for self-advocacy behaviors: It’s hard to represent your own interests without the appropriate set of vocabulary and messages. Words and prestored messages for protesting and rejecting are essential (e.g., No; Stop; No, thank you; I don’t want to). In addition, consider adding messages which allow the communicator to express disagreement or negative opinions (e.g., I don’t like it; I don’t think so; That doesn’t work for me; This is unfair; That’s disrespectful) and proactively provide self-advocacy information (e.g., Please do what I asked; It’s on my IEP; I have a right to be heard; I... [Read More...]
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...]
May 23, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
If you appreciate the Communication Bill of Rights, you won’t want to miss today’s featured video. Kudos to the leadership, clients, and staff of the Communication Technology Education Center (CTEC) for this wonderful video. Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Q44HuMvG0&t=3s
May 7, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Dr. Jill Senner and Matthew Baud are staunch advocates for using research-based strategies and other evidence-based practices (EBP) in their AAC work. In today’s post. they share their thoughts on what EBP is, why it is important for AAC professionals, and how to incorporate it into our clinical and educational practices. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Facts Matter: EBP in AAC Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been a buzz word in healthcare and education for almost two decades. However, “it has been well documented in many disciplines that major gaps exist between what is known as effective practices (i.e., theory and science) and what is actually done (i.e., policy and practice)” (Fixsen et al., 2005, p. 2). What is EBP, why is it important and how can we make sure we’re incorporating evidenced-based practices into our work with students and clients using AAC? Let’s take a look at answers to each of these questions below.... [Read More...]
April 11, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Speak AAC to Teach AAC It’s wonderful to see how many people are actively working on their own skills in aided language input. Today’s video, from the Communication Technology Education Center (CTEC) in northern California, addresses a question that many communication partners have: How much language should I model? Kudos to the STAR team at CTEC for this engaging video. Enjoy! Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VppaSuAF0f4