582 Search Results for a year of 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...]
August 8, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Here in the US, many SLPs who work in educational settings are getting ready to head back to school. In today’s post, we hear from Elizabeth Levy, an SLP at Wasatch County School District in Utah. Elizabeth, who earned her Bachelors and Master’s degrees from Towson University in Maryland, worked in early intervention for several years before joining the team at Midway Elementary two years ago. She has always had a passion for working with children who are nonverbal and require AAC, and is a member of ASHA’s Special Interest Group 12 (AAC). She also serves as part of her district’s AT team. In this post, Elizabeth shares a little bit about how she used the summer to gear up for an initiative to provide additional AAC support for students with significant learning challenges. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: This year, with a new team, I have a great opportunity to go big and... [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 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...]
July 5, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
Summer is a great time to prepare materials for the busy year ahead. Next week, we launch a new series, Make It Monday, to help you do just that. We’ll focus on creating one thing at a time so that you’re ready to start the school year with an ample supply of core vocabulary resources that you can use in therapy, instruction, and informal conversation. Later in the series, we’ll be making individual and classroom communication boards and instructional materials. For now, though, we’ll spend some time getting organized and prepared. Before you make the investment of time and resources, it helps to make a few key clinical/educational decisions. This will keep us from wasting color ink, laminating pouches, velcro, and, most of all, time. Here are the things to think about before you begin. Symbols In order to make AAC materials, you’ll need to decide on how language is... [Read More...]
May 9, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
It has been so exciting to see that AAC learners are increasingly provided with communication boards, books, SGDs, and apps that feature a robust set of core vocabulary words. For many years, ‘providing AAC’ used to mean access to topic and choice boards or activity-specific communication displays (ABCDs). Now, we recognize the limitations of those approaches and do our best to move beyond them in favor of more linguistically robust options. AAC systems with core vocabulary that is organized to support the development of a motor plan allows learners to build and grow their skills over time. For a long time, the AAC field has known that providing access to appropriate tools (in this case, a core vocabulary set) is only the first step toward successful use of augmentative communication. Providing it is necessary but not sufficient for most AAC learners to develop any sort of linguistic competence. For... [Read More...]
April 4, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
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...]
January 6, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
We’ve had lots of requests for the January edition of Rachael Langley’s calendar of core word practice ideas. Many thanks to this wonderful clinician and AAC supporter for her generosity in making these and allowing us to share them. Happy January, all! Thank you, Rachael!
September 29, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for a way to connect with families to encourage modeling of AAC at home? If your learners have AAC systems that are rich in core vocabulary, this calendar by Rachael Langley may be just the ticket. Each day has a suggestion for things to do or say that build experience with our October core words. Click on the image to get a version you can download. BIG thanks to Rachael for creating these each month and allowing us to share them on PrAACtical AAC.