AAC: More Teaching, Less Testing
![AAC: More Teaching, Less Testing](https://praacticalaac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/16-Sept-teaching-or-testing-301x170.jpg)
Hope you had a wonderful, AAC-filled week. Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtical Resources: Book-related Communication Boards Wednesday – Video of the Week: Teaching Clients to Program Their Own AAC Devices Thursday – On Friendship: Supporting AAC Learners
Parents, therapists, and educators share the common goal of helping AAC learners be as independent as possible and assert control over their own communication systems. One step toward this kind of self-advocacy is to teach our clients to add messages to their own AAC systems. In this video, Lindsey Cargill demonstrates how she introduced this to Katya. Enjoy! Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo3x333cIy0
Happy Better Hearing and Speech Month! Monday – AAC Core Vocabulary Instruction: Indirect Teaching Strategies Wednesday – Video of the Week: Assessing Communication Needs in AAC Learners Thursday – PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: The Five Senses
SLP Karen Natoci has always promoted multi-sensory paths to learning. In this month’s installment of PrAACtically Reading, she dives into the topic of our senses, something that is part of many curricula used in special and general education. You can read about her ideas for implementation, see her students’ work, and download the lesson plan and supporting documents in this engaging post. Happy reading! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::; PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: The Five Senses Book Series: For students at the emergent reading level: The Five Senses: Touching, by Rebecca Rissman The Five Senses: Smelling, By Rebecca Rissman The Five Senses: Hearing, by Rebecca Rissman The Five Senses: Seeing, by Rebecca Rissman The Five Senses: Tasting, by Rebecca Rissman For learners at the Conventional Reading Level: Hearing, by Sharon Gordon Smelling, by Sharon Gordon Seeing, by Sharon Gordon Touching, by Sharon Gordon Core vocabulary focus: LOOK, SEE, TOUCH, LISTEN/HEAR, GET, THAT, MORE, MY/MINE,... [Read More...]
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...]
It’s been a busy week of AAC. Monday – AAC & ASD: Teaching Communication Partners Through Video Modeling Wednesday – Video of the Week: Getting Started with AAC for Parents & Practitioners Friday – PrAACtically Pinteresting with Lauren Enders: Writing AAC Goals & Objectives
It is an honor to have Dr. Joanne Cafiero, an AAC consultant for individuals with complex communication needs and Autism Spectrum Disorders, as a guest contributor for today’s post. Dr. Cafiero is the author of Meaningful Exchanges for People with Autism an Introduction to AAC (2005). She is a consulting editor for Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities and has guest edited several of ASHA’s Perspectives in AAC. She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism (2001) and is currently working on an update on AAC and Autism for the Academy. In this post, she shares some of her work on video self-modeling. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Growing research and first-person reports are illuminating the unique sensory and motor differences experienced by people on the Autism Spectrum. This new information has a huge impact on the AAC practitioner. Motor planning differences in ASD can... [Read More...]
Had a busy week? Here are a few posts that you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtical Teaching in an ASD Classroom: Little Tips for Big Core Wednesday – Video of the Week: AAC at Home Thursday – Beyond Autism Awareness to Acceptance, Understanding and Inclusion
A growing number of clinicians, families, and educational teams are prioritizing the use of aided language input as a foundational strategy for AAC learners. When we first started writing about this strategy, it was rare to see adults using AAC to talk with AAC learners.Consistent implementation is still a challenge, but more and more of you are speaking AAC to teach AAC. And quite of few of you are doing your best to influence other stakeholders to support augmented communicators in this way. If you are doing inservices, teaching classes, or guiding teams toward better AAC intervention, the videos listed below may be useful to you in those efforts. Chris Bugaj developed this clear and engaging cartoon explaining the concept for people new to this strategy. Caroline Musselwhite recorded a full webinar with detailed information on aided language input. Communicare, a clinical practice with a strong focus on AAC,... [Read More...]