613 Search Results for a year of core

Make It Monday: Manual Communication Boards with Core Vocabulary

July 11, 2016 by - 11 Comments

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...]

Getting Ready for a Core Vocabulary Journey

July 5, 2016 by - 7 Comments

Getting Ready for a Core Vocabulary Journey

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...]

AAC Core Vocabulary Instruction: Indirect Teaching Strategies

May 9, 2016 by - 1 Comment

AAC Core Vocabulary Instruction: Indirect Teaching Strategies

  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...]

PrAACtical Teaching in the ASD Classroom: Little Tips for Big Core

April 4, 2016 by - 6 Comments

PrAACtical Teaching: Little Tips for Big Core

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...]

PrAACtically October: A Core Word Calendar

September 29, 2015 by - 2 Comments

PrAACtically October: A Core Word Calendar

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.    

PrAACtically September: Core Vocabulary Resources

August 31, 2015 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtically September: Core Vocabulary Resources

It’s hard to believe that summer is just about over (at least here in Florida). If you are supporting a child or adult who has a core vocabulary based AAC system, you know how much it takes to help them learn to use all of the wonderful words at their disposal. One strategy is to select a subset of their words to highlight each month. We can then take this small subset of their core words and: make an extra effort to model them on their device or a facsimile do specific instructional activities to teach the word meaning plan games and tasks to help them better recognize and understand the symbols for those words, and, plan specific opportunities for them to say these words daily conversation and instructional tasks. Our prAACtical friends need practice, practice, and more practice. Over time, they will gain more fluency and automaticity with the... [Read More...]

PrAACtically August: A Core Word Calendar

August 3, 2015 by - 3 Comments

PrAACtically August: A Core Word Calendar

Can you believe it is August already?! AAC learners have a lot to say and helping them get more fluent with core vocabulary is a great way to support them. The wonderful Rachael Langley has a month of ideas for us. Enjoy!   Click on the image to download a copy.

The Baby, The Bathwater, and Core Vocabulary

July 20, 2015 by - 17 Comments

The Baby, The Bathwater, and Core Vocabulary

When we first started writing to advocate for core vocabulary, it was as a counterpoint to the noun-heavy, activity-specific AAC supports that were widely used among beginning communicators. Many times, those communication aids were great for getting communication started with our beginning communicators, but limited their ability for generative language development. Adding core vocabulary provided a lot of linguistic power, and for many learners, that’s a great thing. These days, most clinicians serving people with AAC needs are well aware of the need to populate their AAC systems with a sizable array of high-frequency core words. SLPs have, by and large, gotten the message that core vocabulary plays an important role for AAC learners. In some cases, though, the pendulum has swung a bit too far. An AAC a system built exclusively of single words with only core vocabulary is not likely to meet the needs of most AAC learners.... [Read More...]