Throughout the world, teachers, therapists, and parents are busy doing the real work of AAC. Making sure AAC materials are available all day long. Modeling language with SGDs, apps, and communication boards. Let’s take a peek into their classrooms, therapy rooms, and homes. Macomb Intermediate Schools Shared Reading Shared Reading with the Comment-Ask-Respond Strategy Sentences After School Pop-up Pirate
Are you supporting AAC learners who have SGDs or communication boards/books with high-frequency words? If so, join us as we work to model, practice, and teach these words throughout the day. It can feel overwhelming, so we tend to focus on a subset of words each month. The Year of Core Vocabulary approach isn’t a developmental list of words to be introduced in a specific order, but rather a way of gradually exposing learners to more and more words over time. We do that by modeling them on their device or communication aid when we talk, and plan specific instructional activities to teach word meanings, play games to help them better recognize and understand the symbols for those words, and, elicit them frequently from those who are just learning their AAC systems. Our AAC friends need practice, practice, and more practice. Over time, they will gain more fluency and automaticity with the words in their AAC... [Read More...]
Things move more slowly in the summer and that makes it a good time to play catch-up. Here are some posts that may be worth a second look. Getting ready for a core vocabulary journey Make It Monday: Manual communication boards with core vocabulary Make It Monday: More words, please! Expanding our manual communication boards Super Size It: 5 ideas for making large communication boards Beyond requesting: A week of routines to increase AAC use at mealtimes 5 ways to build understanding Free resources for making AAC and visual supports 5 places for shared AAC materials What else are you catching up on these days? —
Where can I go to get AAC-friendly resources for preschool children? Join us as we explore the Wiki sharing space by the Exceptional Student Education Program of Orange County Public Schools in the Orlando, Florida area. Over the years, their AT team and others have compiled an impressive group of materials that can be used by teachers, therapists, and parents. You can see guest posts on Essential Tricks for Supporting AAC in Schools by some of the team here and here. In this post, we feature one of their webpages that is used for resource sharing. Many of the files are in Boardmaker format, but there are also some in Word and PDF document formats. Most of the resources are available from the menu on main page (click here). Highlights from this site include: Unit-based Resources (including classroom and therapy materials, parent letter, & more) are accessible from the main page Me &... [Read More...]
When we first started writing about core vocabulary, it was largely due to the fact that most SGDs, AAC apps, and communication boards/ books had two big deficits. At the time, most of them lacked the words needed to function throughout the day and/or didn’t have the kinds of words that allow for progression of syntactic skills. Now things look very different. Over the years, the pendulum has moved quite dramatically and now core vocabulary permeates AAC systems that are considered to be ‘robust.’ That’s a lot of movement in a short period of time. When big changes happen rapidly, it stands to reason that there will be some cracks that open up. Misunderstandings, misinterpretations, misconceptions. Here are some of the ones we’ve observed in the recent past. Core words are all that are needed in an AAC system. (Not in most cases. We all want to talk about the... [Read More...]
The good news is plentiful. A growing number of classrooms incorporate some form of AAC. Teachers and therapists are increasingly aware of the value of augmentative forms of communication and are recognizing the potential for communication growth in all of their students. School teams are stepping up to provide access to activity-based communication boards, communication books, low tech SGDs, and AAC apps. They are creating opportunities for teaching and using these forms of AAC in specific classroom activities. In many cases, teachers and therapists are growing dissatisfied with the outcomes. Students are more engaged in the activities are improving their ability to participate appropriately. They aren’t always becoming competent communicators who can express themselves independently throughout the day. It’s frustrating to scramble to find and/or create materials and resources, make significant changes to activities, work hard to implement them, and still not get the expected outcome. It’s exhausting. It’s disappointing,... [Read More...]
Looking for some AAC materials to round out your collection of resources? Teachers Pay Teachers, the online marketplace for materials made by teachers and therapists, has quite a few. Here are a couple of freebies to check out. AAC Myths by Susan Berkowitz Preverbal Communication-AAC Checklists by Ricki Block of Preschool Speechie Plus AAC Home Information Questionnaire by Tarra Bailey AAC Brochure for Teachers and Support Staff by Sublime Speech Leveled Core Communication Boards by Sister SLPs What are your favorite AAC resources on Teachers Pay Teachers? We’d love to hear about them.
For comprehensive AAC systems, there is no doubt that we need access to tools with the communication symbols that match our client’s needs. There are times, though, when ‘free’ and ‘simple’ fits the bill. Whether you are a graduate student clinicians/teacher, parent, or professional, these tools may come in handy. Picto4Me: This executable program works with Google Chrome and allows you to create communication boards and other visual supports at no cost. You can view and use the boards online via computer or mobile device or print them. This program offers voice output and scanning, too. ARASAAC: We’ve written about the wonderful resources at the Aragonese Portal of AAC in previous posts. Keep them in mind as you are searching for symbols or creating AAC supports. Trial versions: Some companies offer a free trial of their symbol software or programs so that consumers can try before they buy. We love... [Read More...]
Symbols, templates, software, tools, and more. That’s what you’ll find on the November PrAACtical Site of the Month: ARASAAC, the Aragonese Portal of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Supported by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports of the Aragonese Government and the General Directorate of Innovation, Equality and Participation, this award-winning site has been serving the AAC community for over two decades. They may be best known for the picture symbols that they share so freely, which allows professionals, users of AAC, and families to create free resources in Catalan, Euskera, English, French, German, Italian, Galician, Portuguese, Spanish, and more. The online tools section has a variety of things to explore including tools to make communication boards, animations (gifs), schedules and calendars, custom symbols, and games. There are also wonderful resources for Spanish Sign Language in pictures and videos. There is also a Materials Exchange section where you can download communication... [Read More...]
We are pleased to have a return visit from special educators Lauren Pawlowski and Amy Devin with ideas for supporting AAC learners in the classroom. Amy and Lauren, who work in the public school system in Michigan, taught in resource rooms for years and have been teaching in self‐contained ASD elementary classrooms since 2009. At that time, there were few classrooms who were integrating core language instruction, but they didn’t let that stop them. Currently, they use manual communication boards, large instructional core boards, and individual AAC devices with their students. They are passionate literacy teachers and, in today’s post, tell us about their approach to shared reading lessons. Their video is chock full of tips to help you make these lessons successful. Enjoy! Shared Reading: It’s Not What They Know, It’s What They THINK! Happy Fall AAC users and facilitators! This month we would like to share some of our tips for... [Read More...]