272 Search Results for video literacy

30 Ways to Support Autism Awareness & Acceptance Month

March 30, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

30 Ways to Support Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month

April is just around the corner and that means we’re getting ready to support the acceptance and inclusion of autistic people. Looking for ideas? Here are some to get you started. Treat yourself to some goodies from The Chocolate Spectrum (where you can order online, visit the cafe, or take a chocolate-making class) or other places that employ people with autism. Read and share 5 references that support the use of AAC & Autism. Help your family or community go beyond awareness and into acceptance.  Learn and share information about Autism Safety – Be AWAARE! Know an autistic MineCraft lover? Introduce them to AutCraft.  Educate yourself on terminology that relates to autism and people with ASD. We may have learned people-first language back in grad school, but there are different points of view on that. This is a great time to learn about identity-first language.  Apply your critical reasoning skills to... [Read More...]

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week # 2: January 2017

January 8, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week # 2: January 2017

And the new year is off and running! Here are some posts you may have missed in your busy, AAC-filled week. Monday: PrAACtically January: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Wednesday: Video of the Week: Communication Strategies for Adolescents as They Transition through Adulthood Thursday: AAC and Emergent Literacy: 5 Posts with Implementation Ideas

Supporting AAC Learners in Emergent Writing: 5 Helpful Resources

December 8, 2016 by - 4 Comments

Supporting AAC Learners in Emergent Writing: 5 Helpful Resources

Looking for ways to help AAC learners of any age develop meaningful writing skills? These helpful resources may be of interest. “There is No Can’t” by Jane Farrall and Sally Clendon  Emerging Writers and AAC by Jane Odom  Alternative Pencils: What Does the Research Say?  Emergent Literacy Beginnings and Goals for Children with Angelman Syndrome by David Koppenhaver and Susan Norwell (information applicable to a broader range of people who use AAC) Can Low-incidence Students Become First-time Writers? By Janet Sturm  Happy exploring!

How We Do It: AAC in the Special Education Classroom

December 5, 2016 by - 2 Comments

At the ASHA Convention last month, I chatted with an SLP about her secret longing: To take a sabbatical and travel the world to see AAC in action. Wouldn’t that be exciting?! In the meantime, we’ll have to live vicariously and peek into AAC practices through the words and pictures of dedicated professionals. Angi Pearce, a teacher at Kowhai Special School in Hastings, New Zealand, was kind enough to help us out and share her experiences in increasing AAC use in her classroom. Angi is the team leader for the Junior School classes (ages 5-11) and graciously prepared this post with support from SLP Michelle Roberts. As you’ll see, Angi is a highly experienced educator but new to the world of AAC and not afraid to take risks and embrace change. Let’s take a look at how a veteran teacher stretched herself to incorporate more AAC into her classroom. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: AAC IN THE CLASSROOM My... [Read More...]

PrAACtical Teaching in the ASD Classroom: Shared Reading

October 31, 2016 by - 3 Comments

We are pleased to have a return visit from special educators Lauren Pawlowski and Amy Devin with ideas for supporting AAC learners in the classroom. Amy and Lauren, who work in the public school system in Michigan, taught in resource rooms for years and have been teaching in self‐contained ASD elementary classrooms since 2009. At that time, there were few classrooms who were integrating  core language instruction, but they didn’t let that stop them. Currently, they use manual communication boards, large instructional core boards, and individual AAC devices with their students. They are passionate literacy teachers and, in today’s post, tell us about their approach to shared reading lessons. Their video is chock full of tips to help you make these lessons successful. Enjoy! Shared Reading: It’s Not What They Know, It’s What They THINK! Happy Fall AAC users and facilitators! This month we would like to share some of our tips for... [Read More...]

How We Do It: A Collaborative Approach to Implementing Core Language within a School-Based Setting, Part 1

October 27, 2016 by - 7 Comments

How We Do It: A Collaborative Approach to Implementing Core Language within a School-Based Setting, Part 1

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...]

Site of the Month: Core Word Classroom

October 10, 2016 by - 1 Comment

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...]

AAC Strategies Round-up: Aided Language Input

April 29, 2016 by - 4 Comments

We’ve been writing about aided language input, a pivotal strategy for supporting AAC learners, for several years. In fact, there are over 200 posts tagged with this term. In this post, we gather together some of the most popular posts on this fundamental intervention strategy. Implementation  A PrAACtical Idea for Aided Language Input Using Aided Language Input to Build Communication Opportunities! How I Do It: Implementing Aided Language Input with Alicia Garcia Pivotal Skills for AAC Intervention: Aided Language Input How We Do It: Controlled Practice in Partner Augmented Input with Jill Senner & Matthew Baud Text-Based Aided Language: Making the Literacy-Communication Connection for Children with Autism Videos PrAACtical Resources: Video Explainers for Aided Language Input Video of the Week: Aided Language Input with Gail Van Tatenhove Video of the Week: Aided Language Input with Dr. Caroline Musselwhite PrAACtical Resources: Video Examples of Aided Language Input Aided Language Input in... [Read More...]

PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: April Fool’s Day

March 24, 2016 by - Leave your thoughts

It’s gratifying to hear from so many of you who are including storybook reading in your AAC instruction and therapy. We welcome back Karen Natoci, Assistant Professor and SLP Oregon Health and Science University’s Child Development Rehabilitation Center. She serves on the Neurodevelopment and Rett Evaluation teams and has a caseload of children with Complex Communication Needs and AAC. Karen tells us that “I know very well the feeling of being overwhelmed by the high needs of students with complex communication needs and will readily admit that you have to have a very large ‘toolbox’ of ideas!” Currently, she is on the charter development team to create the Communication Matrix- Virtual Community of Practice with Charity Rowland. At the end of the day, Karen enjoys running, practicing piano, and exploring Portland and the Oregon coast. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Book: April Fool’s Day Written and Illustrated by Dee Smith (Also available from Deesignery.com) Core Vocabulary focus:  Look,... [Read More...]