Looking for ways to help the team remember to model and elicit core words? Visual supports work for adults, too! This handy flipbook has sentence suggestions for the June Year of Core Vocabulary words, but you can use it with any AAC system that has core vocabulary. Print in black and white on plain paper or choose some brightly colored cardstock to give it a pop. You can download the file here.
It’s a holiday weekend here in the US and that means a little more time to relax and catch up on things. If your day includes catching up on some AAC reading, check out our posts from the past week. Monday – Message and Voice Banking Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Thinking About the Communication Bill of Rights Thursday – PrAACtically June: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Have time for a little more light reading? Here are a few topics you might like to explore. Using Structure to Support Participation Designing & Using Visual Supports for Older Students Using Scripts in AAC Therapy 5 Ways to Use Anchor Charts & Other Visual Supports in AAC Therapy 5 Visual Supports for AAC Learners Before you go, you may wish to review our privacy policies, which were updated as required by the General Data Protection Regulations which... [Read More...]
Hello, Sunday! As AAC service providers, the work we do often keeps us too busy to do much reading. And so, we often use the weekends to catch up. If you’re in that mode today, check out our posts from last week. Monday: PrAACtical Resources: Lockdown, Code Red, & Other School Safety Drills Tuesday: AAC Link Up Wednesday: Video of the Week: AAC in Acute Care Thursday: Throwback Thursday: Extension Activities for AAC Practice Still have an appetite for some more AAC? Here are a few past posts to sink your teeth into. 3 Ways to Use AAC Goals to Strengthen AAC Intervention Using Visual Supports for Goal Setting Conversations PrAACtically Pinteresting with Lauren Enders: Writing AAC Goals Building Linguistic Competence in AAC Learners: 3 Areas to Consider Targeting Writing AAC Goals for Students Who Use AAC If you’re local, take a look at this opportunity to learn from Dr. Caroline Musselwhite on teaching early... [Read More...]
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Here are a few past posts to start your day. Monday – PrAACtical Alert: AAC Professional Development Options Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Medicaid Funding for SGDs Thursday – Transitioning to the Workplace: Resources for AAC Learners with Significant Disabilities ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for some AAC materials? We pulled out a few from the AAC Toolbox just for you. Spelling Boards & FlipBook– Letter boards (alpha & QWERTY) used at Camp Alec; Created by Tina Moreno Visual Supports Wiki Resources from OCPS – See also How We Do It: Essential TRICKs for Supporting AAC in Schools, Part 1 How I Communicate – Template for a Gesture Dictionary Communicare Language Board Templates – Communication board templates for the post “How We Do It: Using Language Boards to Support AAC Use” Colorful Connections – Templates for teaching modified Fitzgerald Key and Goossens’, Crain, & Elder color-coding schemas
Good morning, AAC friends! If you had a busy week, you probably missed one or more of these posts from the week. Monday – PrAACtically March: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Vocabulary Words Wednesday – Video of the Week: Implementing Visual Supports Thursday – PrAACtical Resources: AAC Info to Use & Share Still in the mood for some more AAC? Here are a handful of previous posts to explore. Video of the Week: On Using Symbols with Beginning Communicators Video of the Week: Object Symbols and Core Vocabulary A PrAACtical Look at Getting Started with AAC Symbols Fast FAACt Friday: On Symbols and Reading Core Vocabulary: Making Sense of Symbols
Words for emotions and feelings are pretty common in AAC devices and non-electronic communication aids, like PODD books and eye gaze boards. It’s wonderful when our clients can tell us they are sad or angry with words rather than using challenging behaviors or suffering in silence. What can we do to further their skills in this area? Here are some suggestions to get us thinking. Beyond the Basics: Consider going beyond the basic feeling words (i.e., happy, sad, mad, tired, scared) and including additional emotion words in the AAC system (e.g., frustrated, embarrassed, disappointed, lonely, worried). Don’t assume that this is inappropriate just because an individual has lower language levels or cognitive delays. To learn language, we have to have access to it. Model, model, model: Use these emotion words throughout the day to express your own feelings, and narrate your observations of how others are feeling (e.g., “Joey’s crying... [Read More...]
For several years, those who specialize in supporting AAC learners have stressed the need to develop AAC systems and programming that go beyond the communicative function of requesting in order to target the ability to protest, reject, comment, etc. This has been an important trend that will empower users of AAC to express themselves in much fuller ways. What other things should we be targeting in order to help our clients and students become more linguistically competent? Here are some ideas for goal areas to consider. Temporal Markers: While no one can overstate the importance of talking about our current needs, interests, observations, and preferences, we have to be careful not to get stuck in the moment. It is also important for our AAC learners to develop the language skills to be able to talk about things that already happened or that will/might be happening. Why? Among other things, this... [Read More...]
Looking for activities and books to help integrate AAC and language learning with content about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? Here are some resources to explore. Acts of Kindness and Justice Martin Luther King Jr: Venn Diagram: Great for practice of core and fringe vocabulary, as well as information-giving (e.g., name, birthday) and comparing/contrasting Martin Luther King Jr I Have a Dream Speech: Wonderful for older learners and those focused on Tier 2 vocabulary, more complex sentences, main idea, narrative development, and inferencing. Martin Luther King Jr Holiday 5 Resources for AAC Learners Visual Supports, Core Words, and Martin Luther King Core Values: Suggestions for Language Building with AAC Learners
Have you had an experience like Stacy’s? Stacy SLP knows the importance of building literacy skills in her students who use AAC and was happy to have found an age respectful book that aligns with the curriculum. She downloaded it onto her iPad and practiced reading it so that the push-in session would go smoothly. Stacy reviewed the students’ SGDs and came up with a plan for targeting specific language or AAC skills. She was determined to infuse more literacy activities into her therapy and began the reading activity with equal measures of excitement and nervousness. It was both frustrating and disheartening when her students didn’t like the activity, were hard to engage, and even tried to escape. Within the first few minutes, her enthusiasm had turned to fear (’What do I do NOW?’) and dread (‘How am I going to get through this session?!’). Many of us have had... [Read More...]
Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Here are some posts that you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtical Resources: AT in the IEP Wednesday – Video of the Week: Assessing AAC Learners of Different Ability Levels Thursday – On AAC Training: Skill Building for AAC Team Members ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for a few more places to browse? Here are some selected posts on making and using visual supports. Free Resources for Making AAC and Visual Supports How I Do It – Using an App to Make AAC Materials and Visual Supports AAC Teaching Tips on Scaffolding and Visual Supports Designing and Using Visual Supports for Older Students 5 Visual Supports for the AAC Classroom Wishing a meaningful week to all who celebrate Thanksgiving!