313 Search Results for communication boards

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #12: March 2018

March 18, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #12: March 2018

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

PrAACtical Alert: AAC Professional Development Options

March 12, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtical Alert: AAC Professional Development Options

Lauren Enders, an amazing AAC SLP from Pennsylvania, graciously shared this list of professional development opportunities that may be of interest. Lauren works as an Augmentative Communication/Assistive Technology Consultant for Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22. In the list below, she shares resources for AAC learning in both online and face-to-face formats. Enjoy! You can see more of Lauren’s guest posts here. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS FOR AAC IMPLEMENTATION            ONLINE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING OPTIONS: Power AAC modules: a FREE training series developed by The Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN)with Gail Van Tatenhove, CCC-SLP. This series of brief modules can be used for professional development by individuals or groups who are supporting students with complex communication needs and who need or use AAC. The POWER AAC modules are intended to build the capacity of school personnel to improve communication skills and provide flexible, generative vocabulary for students who need or use AAC. AAC Institute... [Read More...]

Dealing with Feelings: 5 Ways to Encourage Emotion-related Expression by AAC Learners

February 22, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

Dealing with Feelings: 5 Ways to Encourage Emotion-related Expression by AAC Learners

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...]

PrAACtical Resources: Building Our Skills in Interactive Book Reading

January 25, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtical Resources: Building Our Skills in Interactive Book Reading

Reading together with AAC learners can be a great activity for building engagement, language, and literacy skills. Like any other activity, though, it won’t be very helpful in doing that unless we use effective strategies. Today, we share an online module that will help with the basics of interactive book reading. Part of Project CONNECT, The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge, which offers full courses for a fee and a limited set of modules (like the one we are sharing today) at no charge. This is a great starting place for anyone looking to better understand how to use shared reading as a way to build communication skills. From there, we can guide families, paraprofessionals, and professionals who work with AAC learners to utilize additional strategies, such as aided language input and descriptive talking, to support those who use some form of augmentative communication. Enjoy learning more about Dialogic... [Read More...]

PrAACtical Research: AAC Intervention for Children with ASD

December 4, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtical Research: AAC Intervention for Children with ASD

Dr. Kathy Howery is back with another helpful post an AAC research. Kathy is based in Alberta, Canada, and has worked in the field of AT and special education for over three decades. In the past year, she completed her doctoral studies where she used phenomenological methods to seek to understand the lived experience of speaking with/through a speech generating device. Kathy is currently working as a consultant to schools and school districts across Alberta focusing primarily on children and youth with complex communication needs. In this article, she discusses research on AAC interventions. Enjoy! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Almirall, D. , DiStefano, C., Chang, Y.-C., Shire, S., Kaiser, A., Lu X, Nahum-Shani, I., Landa, R., Mathy, P. & Kasari, C. (2016). Longitudinal Effects of Adaptive Interventions with a Speech-Generating Device in Minimally Verbal Children with ASD. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 45(4), 442-456. What this article is all about (the focus... [Read More...]

Emergency Preparedness for the AAC Family

September 7, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

Emergency Preparedness for the AAC Family

Many of us live in areas prone to storms or other game-changing weather events, but even those who don’t should prepare for emergency situations. Today, as we continue our preparations for Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the open Atlantic, my friend, Amy Goldman, takes the reins. With her broad background in AAC and AT and her incredible advocacy work, we are in no better hands. If you’re inclined toward prayers or even if you’re not, we here in South Florida could use any positive energy you can send our way. Stay safe, friends, and remember to take care of those around you. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: With the images of the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in front of us, and with Irma and possibly Jose in the forecast, it is actually a little late to be talking about emergency preparedness.  However, it is good to reflect on some of... [Read More...]

PrAACtical Ideas for Repurposing Older AAC Technology

August 21, 2017 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtical Ideas for Repurposing Older AAC Technology

If you’ve been working in this field for awhile, chances are you’ve got some older voice output technology lying around. Poke around in the back of a closet or tucked way on top of the cupboards and you might encounter some hidden treasures. If you look w-a-a-a-y back there, you just might find a few digitized (recorded) speech devices that haven’t been used for some time. With only 2, 4, 8, 9, or 32 locations, these are generally insufficient for individuals with complex communication needs to use as their personal communication devices. When matched to the right purpose, though, these are wonderful tools that often have a lot of life left in them. How can we put those low tech AAC devices to work? Here are a few ideas to get us started. Build letter-sound knowledge: Program each cell with the sound of each letter so that the AAC student... [Read More...]

Using Multiple AAC Symbol Sets and Systems with AAC Learners: Considerations for Thoughtful Interventionists

August 10, 2017 by - 7 Comments

Using Multiple AAC Symbol Sets and Systems with AAC Learners: Considerations for Thoughtful Interventionists

PCS, Pixons, Minspeak symbols, Smarty Symbols, Symbol Stix, CoughDrop Symbols, ARASAAC symbols, Mulberry symbols, Lesson Pix, Sclera symbols, and more. In terms of AAC symbol options, we are living in plentiful times.  It isn’t uncommon to see situations like Jonah’s. On a typical school day, Jonah is likely to encounter at least three types of pictures for the same words. He has Smarty Symbols on his AAC app and a classroom core board with PCS, and is using instructional materials using Symbol Stix. These are each great ways of visually representing language, but here’s something to think about: Does it help or hurt Jonah to have 3 different pictures for the same word? There are many options in symbol sets and systems, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here are some things to think about as you and your team are making these decisions. There is no empirical... [Read More...]

PrAACtical Questions with Vicki Clarke: What’s the Role of Core Vocabulary?

July 6, 2017 by - 3 Comments

PrAACtical Questions: What's the Role of Core Vocabulary?

Today, we’re welcoming back Vicki Clarke, a Georgia-based SLP who has been specializing in AAC for over 25 years. Her practice, Dynamic Therapy Associates, serves children and adults with significant communication challenges in clinical and educational settings. Most of Vicki’s guest posts have been on the topic of assessment (click here to view them), but in this post, she shares her thoughts on the role of core vocabulary in AAC systems.   :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: I’ve enjoyed listening to the wonderful presenters at the AAC In The Cloud sessions last week.  It’s exciting to see AAC knowledge being shared to such a wide and varied audience!  Core vocabulary was a hot topic last week so I thought it would be a good time to chat about it! At conferences, in blogs, all over the internet and from your AAC specialists, you may have gotten the memo that Core Vocabulary is an important component... [Read More...]

AAC In the Classroom: Considerations for Modeling Core Vocabulary

June 12, 2017 by - 3 Comments

AAC In the Classroom: Considerations for Modeling Core Vocabulary

Here in the US, many schools just let out for summer vacation but some special education teachers and SLPs are already thinking about things they want to prepare over the school break so they’ll be ready for fall. Some are contemplating changes to the ways they support AAC in the classroom. We’ve heard from several who are planning to prioritize modeling of core vocabulary using aided language input. Before we start making large core boards and other support materials, though, it’s helpful to stop and think through some important issues. A little planning now will save time and effort in the long run. If you’re planning to do this kind of prep work over the summer, here are some questions for your team to consider. Does each student with complex communication needs have access to an AAC system that includes core vocabulary? If not, why not? In some cases, the students... [Read More...]