Here are some posts you may have missed. Tuesday: 5 Features to Look for in SGDs and AAC Apps Thursday: Video of the Week – Infusing Core Word Practice into Daily Interactions Friday: AAC Strategies Round-up: Aided Language Input
In this week’s featured video, Susan Berkowitz, a California-based SLP with long-standing interests in AAC, shares prAACtical suggestions for how to incorporate core words during daily interactions and therapy activities. This short video is a great one to share with families or teams who need a little boost to increase their aided language input and create more communication opportunities for AAC learners. Direct link to video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPaSJ2mj_U
AAC posts you may have missed in your busy week. Monday – PrAACtical Resources: Video Examples of Aided Language Input Wednesday – Visual Immersion Program Thursday – How We Do It: Controlled Practice with Partner Augmented Input
Special educators Lauren Pawlowski and Amy Devin are back with tips for making AAC work in the classroom. In their first post, they talked about using a large communication board that is rich in core vocabulary for aided language input and AAC instruction. Today, they share some of the things they’ve learned to make this more manageable in a busy classroom. Enjoy! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We hope that many of you were able to make your Big Core boards for group instruction. Now what?? Using Big Core can take a while to get used to. Even after using it for several years, sometimes we still struggle with finding the words quickly. Don’t worry about this because our students can’t always find words quickly and it is good for them to see that everyone struggles with language at times. It can also be empowering to them if you ask for their help! The... [Read More...]
Hope you had a great start to Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month! Monday – PrAACtical Resources: Video Explainers for Aided Language Input Wednesday – Video of the Week: Getting Started with PODD Friday – PrAACtically April: Resources for a Year of Core Vocabulary Words
Among the things that our prAACtical value the most are videos of AAC in action. Lauren Enders once again comes to our rescue with dozens of them to explore. Enjoy! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: For this installment of PrAACtically Pinteresting, I’d like to highlight one of the boards that I reference most when working with SLPs, teachers, support staff, and parents who support individuals who are learning to use AAC. This board is called AAC: Video Examples of Implementation/Aided Language Input and is a compilation of videos that show clinicians, teachers, and parents demonstrating excellent aided language input/stimulation skills with AAC users. Whenever I come across a new video that is an wonderful example of how to support language development and system learning in an AAC user, I pin it to this board. When pinning videos, I do my best to represent an array of AAC system types. You will see videos showing various dedicated devices,... [Read More...]
Today we launch a new series, PrAACtical Teaching in an ASD Classroom, which will address the nuts and bolts of infusing AAC throughout the school day. I couldn’t be more delighted to introduce you to two talented special educators, Amy Devin and Lauren Pawlowski, who work in the public school system in Michigan. Amy and Lauren began teaching in self‐contained ASD elementary classrooms in 2009 and taught in resource rooms prior to that. When they first started with their own classrooms, there was not much talk about core language, let alone how to implement it on a classroom-wide basis. They started with a 32-cell core board on a digitized speech device and now use a 64-location core vocabulary on a manual communication board, large instructional core boards, and individual AAC devices. They are passionate literacy teachers and believe that every child can read, write and communicate. Enjoy their post and... [Read More...]
Reading is such a great activity to build language skills in AAC learners, but it takes some practice to get the hang of how to engage our partners, model language, and create communication opportunities. We’re off to New Zealand today to the Kimi Ora School in the Wellington region for a demonstration that shows how we can provide some aided language input and opportunities for core word use in interactive storybook reading.
It is exciting to hear about the many AAC trainings offered by schools, clinics, and other organizations. Whether it is through small group consultations, inservice trainings, workshops, or conference presentations, more and more of our colleagues are helping others gain an understanding of AAC issues and practices. We’d love to support those efforts, and appreciate the opportunity to share information, handouts, and materials that can be useful in that work. Today, we are pleased to share a wonderful handout by Alicia Garcia, a lead SLP at the AAC Clinic at One Kids Place, a children’s treatment centre in northern Ontario. Alicia has more than two decades of clinical experience in a variety of settings and locales. You can see a guest post Alicia did on avoiding pitfalls in aided language input here. The handout she is sharing today is used primarily for providing initial training to people who live, work... [Read More...]
Why spend valuable intervention time teaching words that relate only to one specific activity or environment when you could be teaching words that the learner can use all day long? Building competency with a robust base of 300-500 core words gives people the vocabulary they need to function in any environment. (Try that with AAC systems that are mostly nouns and action verbs!). How can we continually increase our clients’ competence with core words? A few years ago, we decided to approach this by focusing on 12-16 core words each month. Each month, we would highlight those words in our conversation (aided language input), direct intervention, and home programming activities with AAC learners. The repeated experiences with those 12-16 words helped the learners develop new skills, and kept the team focused on the same things. An added bonus: We were less likely to be overwhelmed. It’s gratifying to see many... [Read More...]