448 Search Results for autism
June 1, 2012
by Robin Parker -
We have always started our collaborative projects with a retreat (usually a day at the beach or park). The retreat usually ends with a project and a plan to meet again. Following the retreat that inspired PrAACtical AAC, we were spending hours upon hours on the computer searching We were using pen and paper to write down urls to sites we wanted to share. We couldn’t believe the great information that was available. So when Carole told me to sit down and said “you have to look at what I found, it’s called LiveBinders“. I can still remember the exact moment. It was like on T.V….. the sun started shining through the window of my living room and music started playing. We couldn’t believe there was a site that was easy to use, would organize all the work we had done, let us look at and use other binders,... [Read More...]
May 30, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
When I first heard about curation being the next big thing on the internet, I had a hard time seeing how I would have time to get involved. Less than a year later, I can’t conceive of being on the internet without my curation tools. Every day, something comes up that I want to store on a curation site. And it’s almost every day that I send someone to those places for a specific tool, video, article, etc. – In addition to Pinterest, which we blogged about earlier, we are frequent users of Scoop.It and LiveBinders. Each one has its unique properties and so, they are each useful for different things. – Scoop.It is a pictorial magazine where you can collect and share websites related to topics of interest. Unlike Pinterest, with Scoop.It, you can add things that do not have a sizable image. Anyone can view Scoop.Its, but if... [Read More...]
May 24, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Memorial Day Weekend is big for us. We remember, appreciate, and honor the people who have protected our freedoms. We both have annual relaxing weekends planned. As we started to get ready, though, we started looking for Memorial Day AAC materials. It was surprising to see that there was not much to be found. We found some gluten-casein free Memorial Day recipes, which are great, but what about symbols to go with the recipes or symbols to explain the holiday and what about AAC language activities for the typical long weekend or trip? Not much…. So as we began preparing for our own weekends, these are some of the things we have done or are doing for PrAACtical AAC at home and on our mini-vacations: – Before We Leave Create a personal participation story (modified social story) so ALL the children can SEE the language for the trip. Here’s something that... [Read More...]
May 23, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– For some people with significant communication difficulties, mobile devices and AAC apps play an important role. When selected after a process of careful evaluation, they can be incredibly useful in building communication, literacy, self-regulation, and other important skills. Here are links to organizations that provide support to families seeking mobile devices and communication apps for their children. – 1. The iTaalk Autism Foundation 2. Babies with iPads 3. Apps for Children with Special Needs 4. Different Needz Foundation 5. Gift a Voice Program from Different Iz Good™: iPhones only –
May 19, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Today we pass the reins to Dr. Oliver Wendt from my alma mater, Purdue University. Purdue’s AAC program has made a great many contributions to the field and the tradition continues with the development of SpeakAll, an AAC app modelled after the PECS strategy. In this post, Dr. Wendt explains how a service-oriented project came to benefit so many individuals with significant communication difficulties. — – SpeakAll! An iPad App Addressing Particular Needs of Learners with Autism – An interdisciplinary team of Purdue University students from engineering, special education, and speech-language pathology has developed a simple and “lite” iPad app that takes into account the particular learning characteristics of beginning communicators with autism. This particular Purdue program is titled “Engineering Projects in Community Service” (EPICS). – The free app is called SpeakAll! and is available for download at the iTunes store here. SpeakAll! has been modeled after the Picture Exchange... [Read More...]
May 18, 2012
by Robin Parker -
Did we fail to mention that we are at Twitter Stage 4 ? (uh oh… we just found a 1-46 Twitter Stage Scale). Twitter seems to be our favorite medium for getting and giving information quickly. Although we still have so much to learn, as the song goes, here are a few of our favorite things: 140 Characters– We love to shorten directed learning and teaching. We only recently realized that listening to long (or short) lectures is not how we PrAACtically learn. The 140 character limit helps us ‘flip’ the learning by letting us give a short ‘teaser’ and a link. We love this. HashTags- It took us awhile to understand hastags and now we love them. Edudemic published a great A-Z Dictionary of Educational Hashtags that we refer to often. It is great to have everything in 1 place. Twitter Speak- We love the cool abbreviations that help you say... [Read More...]
May 18, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– –ASHA’s Center on Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) in Communication Disordersis beginning to have some relevant information for the AAC community. While many SLPs equate EBP with research and journal articles, this is only one component. ASHA’s EPB group is working with content area specialists to develop navigable evidence ‘maps’ to highlight information in each of the three pillars of EBP: Clinical Expertise/Expert Opinion, Research, and Client/Family Perspectives. – Professionals working with children and adults who have developmental disabilities may be interested in this Evidence Map on AAC and Cerebral Palsy. Additional evidence maps that have an AAC-related component been developed for dementia, TBI in adults, and autism.
May 15, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
The content of this post has been updated. Click HERE for the most current version that includes Android apps and a link to our AAC app rubric. —– Thanks to all who’ve given us great feedback and suggestions on our list of free and lite AAC apps. If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we have mixed feelings about the AAC app revolution. More specifically, we’ve had concerns about the decision-making process around app selection, and have advocated for that to occur within the context of a feature match process that gives appropriate attention to the full range of AAC options. In our digital curation sites, we link to tools we use for this process, such as the feature match forms developed by Jessica Gosnell at Boston Children’s and the ones created by Scott Marfilius and Kelly Fonner. In our own teaching and clinical work, when AAC apps... [Read More...]
May 12, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Spring is in the air and that means the thoughts of many school-based clinicians and teachers turn to…survival! If our recent conversations with colleagues and families are any indication of what’s going on in the rest of the AAC world, it’s been a long year. – Sometimes that means that kids get antsy, professionals feel a little worn out and stressed, and families begin to worry about the long expanse of unstructured time from June to September. Here are some of the resources we’ve been looking at and sharing lately. — Solid information on positive behavior support from Florida State University’s program, Positive Beginnings A host of wonderful visual supports for behavior from SET-BC Ideas for visual supports for behavior regulation from Lisa Geary, SLP, of LiveSpeakLove Love this DIY calming jar and these prAACtical ideas from the forum at A-Z Teacher Stuff Helpful downloads for visual supports from Geneva Centre... [Read More...]
May 6, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– The content of this post has been updated. Click HERE for the most current version that includes Android apps and a link to our AAC app rubric. – The AAC app market is growing faster than any of us could have imagined even a few months ago. Here is our current list of AAC apps that are offered free or in lite versions. Thanks to Jane Farrall for the heads-up about some of the most recent additions. AlexiCom AAC Answers: Yes/No Free Augie Free (Free version not currently available in US) Autism 5-Point Scale EP (Autism Help) Com App Comunicador Personal Adaptable(Spanish) Communicate Mate Female: NEW Communicate Mate Male: NEW Connect Cards:NEW DIME Lite FreeSpeech: NEW Functional Communication System Lite: NEW Gabby Tabs Lite: NEW Grid Player iBlissymbols Lite iComm Education iPhonic Lite iPicto Lite Locabulary Lite MetaTalk Lite My Choice Pad Lite: NEW My Talking Phone MyTalk Tools Neo Julie... [Read More...]