1058 Search Results for Core
November 10, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
We’re excited to welcome back SLPs Lori Sanzeri and Chelsea Collins, creators of Core City, to tell us more about implementing this approach. They both work for the NYC Department of Education and created Core City to promote classroom-wide support of AAC. Last month, they introduced us to Core City. In this post, they share some of the ways that they get everyone involved in using and teaching AAC. STAFF TRAINING The most difficult part of training all staff is finding the time. We are fortunate to have a supportive administration that understands the importance of communication and works to find time to allow us to meet for professional development. If you are not afforded this time, our experience has shown us that the most successful staff training occurs by us modeling our strategies while we are working with the children in the classroom. We encourage the following strategies to... [Read More...]
October 27, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Nothing makes us smile like seeing teams in which professionals serving students with AAC needs work together to ensure that those students can use and grow their language skills. In this guest post, we learn about an approach that has worked for one such team, Lori Sanzeri and Chelsea Collins. Lori Sanzeri, MA CCC-SLP, TSHH, received her B.S. in Speech Language Pathology from SUNY Cortland in 2003 and M.A. from St. John’s University in 2009. She has worked for the NYC Department of Education since 2003 and teaches AAC and phonetics at St. John’s University. Chelsea Collins, MS CCC-SLP, TSSLD, received her B.S. in Special Education from Seton Hall University in 2009 and M.S. in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from New York University in 2012. She has worked for the NYC DOE since 2012 and specializes in AAC and early intervention. They are on Instagram as @thelanguageladies and have a Facebook page as... [Read More...]
October 26, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
And just like that, we’re ready to say goodbye to October. It’s been a great month of AAC Awareness events and activities (whew!), and now we are prepping for November. Looking for some ways to help your AAC learners become more competent in using core words? Need to get staff on board with modeling core vocabulary? Trying to get familiar with where core words are stored in a particular SGD or AAC app? Here’s an approach you may want to try: Choose a dozen or so core words to focus on each month. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that. 2013: A Year of Core (12 words/month) 2014: A(nother) Year of Core (16 words/month; Note: These are different than the core words covered in 2013) Those posts have links to downloadable grids with the core words for each month that can be used... [Read More...]
October 10, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for materials that you can use to support AAC in educational settings? AssistiveWare’s newest venture, The Core Word Classroom, may be just what you are looking for. While the materials align with their AAC app Proloquo2Go, the concepts, activity ideas, and planning tools have broad applicability. Jennifer Marden and Amanda Hartmann, who created most of the content for this new venture, introduce us to the site. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom is a resource for anyone who is implementing a core word-based AAC system. The materials focus on teaching using core words, as well as expanding communication beyond requesting to all the reasons we communicate, and helping AAC users use the full grammatical possibilities of language. The classroom materials are built around a framework called the 3W’s: WORDS – the core words that could be used for an activity WHYS – the many different reasons why we communicate... [Read More...]
September 29, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Know any AAC learners like these? Jeremiah has an SGD with thousands of core and fringe words, but he uses less than 100 of them in day-to-day life. Bella used an AAC app with visual scene displays to interact at playtime and during daily routines for the past several months. Her team just added an app with grid-based vocabulary so that she can begin to create novel sentences and expand her language abilities. Mason was recently evaluated for an AAC device, but it will likely take a few months to get the funding situation straightened out. In the meantime, his team created a manual communication board that mirrors the main screen of the SGD’s language software. Each of them need lots of practice to become fluent with the core words in their AAC systems. Are you looking for resources to support your use of core words in therapy, in the... [Read More...]
September 19, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Our Site of the Month addresses a topic relevant to many of you who serve AAC learners. The Project Core website is the public face of a research project looking at the use of an AAC intervention program that uses a consistent set of core vocabulary that grows with the learner over time. The multi-tiered system for augmenting language used in this project begins with extensive aided language input and explicit instruction of selected core words during meaningful interactions throughout the school day. This forms a foundation on which more specialized and individualized intervention and vocabulary selection is built. The project is part of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where the team has been developing a classroom-friendly intervention approach based on the System for Augmenting Language that was pioneered in the 1990s and continues to build an evidence base... [Read More...]
August 29, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
It’s wonderful to hear so many stories of AAC interventionists who are providing learners with access to a larger lexicon, including a growing set of core words. If you are looking for ways to model, practice, and teach these words, it can help to narrow the focus to a subset of words so that there are plenty of learning opportunities. The Year of Core 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 prAACtical friends need practice, practice, and more practice. Over time,... [Read More...]
July 26, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for ways to prAACtice using core words? Rachael Langley has been incredibly generous with her time in creating and sharing calendars with daily activity ideas. The current calendar (2016) provides suggestions for our Year of Core Vocabulary Set 2 words. You can look back at the 2015 calendar for prAACtice suggestions for the August Set 1 words, too.
July 25, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
The summer is flying by here in Florida and we’re starting to think about heading back to school. Teachers, therapists, and aides play a pivotal role in helping AAC learners develop skills with core vocabulary so that they have a body of words that can be used across activities, environments, and communication partners. There are lots of ‘right’ ways to support these students. Among them is an instructional approach in which a new set of core words is introduced every few weeks in order to build their experiences with AAC. Our Year of Core Words materials has two versions, one from 2013 (12 words/month) and one from 2014 (16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words). If you’ve been following along, or are just getting started, these resources may be of interest. Set 1 (2013) Words: any, bring, day, fall, give, hot, job, know, other, sick, sorry, together Set 2... [Read More...]
July 11, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Welcome to Make It Monday, a series in which we hope to inspire your team to create communication boards and instructional materials for students who need or already use core vocabulary. In the first post, Getting Ready for a Core Vocabulary Journey, we talked about getting set up to make materials for expressive and receptive language use. Today, we get into making manual communication boards (MCBs). About Manual Communication Boards The term manual communication board refers to a ‘no-tech’ AAC support that students can use to express themselves. Typically printed on paper and laminated, most MCBs have grids of words organized by part of speech (e.g., verbs in one area, adjectives in another). MCBs that are designed for use in a particular activity, such as doing an art project or participating in Circle Time, are called activity-based communication displays, or ABCDs. ABCDs were very popular in the early days of... [Read More...]