597 Search Results for visual support
July 16, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Have you worked with students like these? Gaby has been using SGDs since kindergarten. As she approaches high school, Gaby is able to express many things but her language is significantly below those of her peers. This makes it difficult for Gaby to read grade-level textbooks with comprehension, complete writing assignments, and perform well on academic tests. Ian’s SLP and teacher are trying to understand why he is able to learn new language skills but seems to lose some of them when they start working on new goal areas. When the time came for a speech-language re-evaluation, they were surprised that Ian scored so poorly in areas where he made mastered his IEP goals. Brandon is a fifth grader who wants to go to college someday. His language skills have been growing steadily since he got his first AAC device several years ago, but are still remarkably delayed. In situations... [Read More...]
July 8, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtical Resources: Core Vocabulary Flipbook for July Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Independence Day, AAC style! Thursday – 5 Visual Supports for Emotions and Feelings ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for a couple of additional posts to explore? Check out these selections fromt the archives. PrAACtical Suggestions: How to Get Started with a New AAC Client Visual Schedules 411 How to Use Magnets to Promote Language Development Visual Supports for Places We Go (downloadable template) From Disney Princesses to Houseplants: More on Building Communication Opportunities
June 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for more ways to build AAC skills? Book reading can be incorporated into therapy sessions and instructional lessons, as well as part of the daily routine at home. Here are some ideas for using books to support AAC and language learning. Choosing a book: In most cases, we want the AAC learner to have the autonomy to choose a book. However, we can make this part of the AAC learning process by teaching the skill of choosing something to read and talking about it before the learner makes his/her choice. Goal Areas: We can use this time to build basic turn-taking skills, requesting, sentence-building, and new vocabulary, among other things. It’s also a great opportunity to develop more advanced syntax using words like ‘since’ and ‘because’ (e.g., “I want to read about sport because it is World Cup time.”) and various sentence structures (e.g., “First, let’s read a sports... [Read More...]
June 14, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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.
May 27, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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...]
May 20, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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...]
March 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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
March 4, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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
February 22, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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...]
January 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
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...]