597 Search Results for tell me about it
May 19, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Thanks to Smart Apps for Kids for another great app review AND notification of a great FREE App. We are writing this quickly because it is unclear how long Touch and Write will remain free. After reading the review in Smart Apps for kids, we immediately got the app and tried it out. Although it was developed to help teach fine motor writing skills, here are some additional ways we are going to use it to facilitate communication and language skills. Please let us know if you have some additional ideas. Choice making- the learner can choose the what you write with (ketchup, shaving cream, paint, chocolate pudding and many more), you can also choose the paper type from 28 options, and you can also choose to hear music or not, and whether or not to have tracing cues Turn Taking and Choice Making- This activity can... [Read More...]
April 23, 2012
by Robin Parker -
More About Communication Opportunities: It doesn’t matter your personality, but for students who do not naturally comment, you need to go ape! And then still, you need to teach with wait & signal cues, visual supports, aided language input, modeling, expansions, and positive feedback. We will never forget a semester with Mikey and our hair clips of butterflies, whales, dinosaurs, and even a spider. These hair clips allowed for the item to hang in our face…… until Mikey commented and we could ‘go ape’ with surprise. A great strategy to use with commenting communication temptations is Wait & Signal. Wait and Signal involves setting up the temptation and then pausing with raised eyebrows like you expect the learner to take a ‘turn/a conversational turn’. As always, make sure the learner has access to the appropriate communication device or communication boards. 10 additional commenting communication temptations and opportunities: Move a huge stuffed... [Read More...]
April 7, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
April is springtime where we live and spring is a time of beginnings. It’s fitting, then, that our AAC strategy of the month speaks to the very beginning of AAC intervention. Learning how to create focused opportunities to teach or practice an AAC skill is a pivotal skill for SLPs. The concept is a simple one: create an environment in which the learner WANTS or NEEDS to display the target skill. – Communication opportunities are related to the concept of communicative temptations. As SLP blogger Becca Jarzynski of Child Talk puts it “Communication temptations are pretty much just what they sound like: we set up the environment to tempt children to communicate with us.” Stop by and read her excellent post here . While Becca focuses on their use with young children, the approach can be used with people of any age. – Tempting people to communicate is all about... [Read More...]
March 17, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
No one likes to be tested, least of all people with communication difficulties who don’t have the tools to express their anxiety or discomfort in the ways they would like to. Some of the people we evaluated had real issues with this and so we’ve experimented with ways to make the testing less stressful and more productive. Here are some of the strategies that we found to be most successful. – 1. Work with the team to establish Fair Testing Practices for the person you’ll be evaluating. Our chapter on ‘Language Assessment for Students Who Use AAC’ describes this in more detail, but essentially it involves writing a ‘rule book’ for how to test this person. It might specify how long the test session can/should be, how to set up the situation so the person can respond, and what other supports are needed so that we are testing the person’s... [Read More...]
March 14, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Stand Tall, Mary Lou Melon by Patty Lovell is a fun book that we like reading online* with kids who use AAC. Many schools have anti-bullying campaigns and read this book and others as part of their efforts to help children recognize and respond appropriately to unkind words and deeds. There are a lot of great resources for reading this book on sites like this one intended for use in general education classrooms. We decided it was time to HijAACk Mary Lou and share some ideas for using this wonderful story to build AAC and language skills. – 1. Beginning communicators could certainly contribute to the ‘read aloud’ portion of the activity with repeated lines, like “So she did.” Recording that into a single message device, an SGD, or an AAC app gives our student a terrific way to be actively engaged. 2. Students who can discriminate between two options can... [Read More...]
February 21, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Communication and language involves so much more than requesting. Without much effort, communicators with typical language development and even delayed language development communicate for many reasons. Showing or telling about a shared interest comes easily and is a form of commenting to communicate. Commenting is one of the most social reasons that we communicate. So, it makes perfect sense that children with social communication disorders may not have an easy time with these social aspects of communication and language. We know many children who frequently use long (or short) sentences to say ‘I want the blue truck’, ‘I want the big ball’, or even ‘Can I have the cold drink’. They may even communicate frequently to ask for toys, games, or activities of their choice. All of the requesting is GREAT but not enough to be part of comprehensive conversations and social language interactions. It is not that children with... [Read More...]
February 10, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Apps You Love- Toca Boca Doctor “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”… If it were only that simple. But it is not that easy and since we are right in the middle of cold and flu season, it reminds us about teaching AAC users to let us know when they are not feeling well. The more we can find ways to make the concepts of pain, injury, and distress more concrete and specific, the easier it is to learn. Telling others about your own discomfort is an important self-advocacy and self-determination skill. —- On a more PrAACtical note, telling about your symptoms... [Read More...]
February 5, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Disney’s free app, Disneyland Explorer, is literally a walk in the park. We love the quality of the graphics, which are incredibly vivid and reminiscent of the old ViewMaster toy. The app is simple-just some views of Disneyland but because many of our kids have such intense memories of the Florida version of this theme park, it’s a natural for language therapy. Not everyone is lucky enough to live near a Disney park, but even so, there are lots of fun things to explore on this app.Take a peek at a video of the app here and you’ll see what we mean.There are lots of clinical/educational uses for this app, particularly for those kids we know whose lives are punctuated by trips to the Magic Kingdom. Here are some suggestions for AAC users of various ability levels. = Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Disneyland Explorer 1. Multiple opportunities for using AAC... [Read More...]
July 11, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
We get lots of questions about using AAC with young children, from babies to toddlers to preschoolers. There are many ways to approach this, so today, we are looking back at some of our earlier posts on AAC for little learners. Using Vest Displays with Preschoolers on the Autism Spectrum with guest author Dr. Carol Goossens’ Mining the Preschool Routine for PrAACtical AAC Opportunities Supporting Preschoolers with AAC Needs: A Case Study Visual Supports in Action in the Preschool Classroom Video of the Week: Parent-Implemented AAC Intervention for Young Children PrAACtically Reading: Books Featuring Children & Youth with Disabilities From Wheelchair to Hands-free Walker for Preschool Children with AAC Needs, Part 1, Part 2 TELL ME: AAC in the Preschool Classroom TELL ME About It (Year 1) TELL ME AAC Literacy Kits Brown Bear, Brown Bear I Went Walking From Head to Toe Here Are My Hands What Do You Like?... [Read More...]
June 13, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
In the US, Juneteenth is one of our newest federal holidays and many are now getting ready to celebrate it. Whether you are relatively new to an understanding of Juneteenth or have been honoring it for decades, we hope today’s post has some ideas for integrating it into the AAC work you do. First published a few years back, we’ve updated it with some additional books, videos, and other resources. PrAACtically Juneteenth In the US, June 19th is a day that commemorates the ending of slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation became effective on January 1, 1863, it took an additional two and half years for it to take root in all of the states. It wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 that Texas became the final state to uphold the proclamation. There are other days that memorialize the freedom of enslaved people, but Juneteenth is the oldest nationally-celebrated commemoration. Traditionally marked... [Read More...]