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25 Under 5: AAC Apps

June 18, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

25 AAC Apps Under $5.00

We are now up to 72 Free or Lite version of AAC apps.  There is another emerging price point category of apps that are not quite free but fairly close.  We were so happy to find 25 apps under $5.oo.  These are all regular versions. All the same teaching and preparation is needed when choosing AAC apps, no shortcuts here, but deciding if you need an app for ‘small talk’ or telling stories or labeling may help make it easier to decide which AAC apps to try.  The RelAAAC rubric may help with these decisions after a feature match process is done.  After selecting the AAC app, then comes the fun part. You can be creative by setting up fun opportunities to communicate. Communication temptations can be set up for  requesting (putting favorite toys in a closed screw top jar) and  commenting (wearing really big fun hats/glasses). And don’t forget... [Read More...]

PrAACtical Intervention Ideas: AAC Learning with the Toys, Websites, and Apps You Love

June 16, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtical Intervention Ideas: AAC Learning with the Toys, Websites, and Apps You Love

One of the best things about being an AAC interventionist is that it allows you to play and find creative ways to teach and practice language. In this post, we’ve compiled some of our favorite posts about teaching core vocabulary, early communicative intents, and more advanced language skills to people learning AAC. – – Early Language Magic Moments with Toca Store (app) Magic Moments with Toca Boca Doctor (app) PrAACtical Play with Playskool Busy Gears  (toys) Magic Moments with Stop and Go (app) HijAACked! Putting an AAC Twist on The Hallelujah Flight (free e-book, website) Magic Moments with Disneyland Explorer (app, free) Magic Moments with Painting with Time (app, free) 5 Apps to Tempt Commenting and Other Language Functions (app) – More Advanced Language Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with BrainPOP (app and website) Magic Moments with Qwiki (app and website) HijAACked! AAC & Anti-Bullying with Stand Tall, Marylou Melon (free... [Read More...]

RECASTING: A LANGUAGE FACILITATION STRATEGY

June 9, 2012 by - 5 Comments

Recasting

“Strategies Are The Secret To Learning” Tony Robbins There are many ways to teach speech and language but we think it is important to remember that the goal should be to teach spontaneous language. So all the strategies we discuss will be part of a responsive conversational style and be real or authentic to  conversation. They will be for the facilitator (most often the adult) to use.  There should be a purpose or strategy applied to each and every thing we communicate or ‘say’ when teaching language.  This extra ‘dose’ of language facilitation is what transitions ordinary talking or language stimulation to specific language teaching/ or speech-language intervention. At the beginning of the month, we introduced language facilitation strategies by talking about aided language input, which is an authentic way of adding visual language and AAC modeling to the conversation. This week we are talking about RECASTS. Recasts serve to add or... [Read More...]

Language Facilitation Strategies

June 2, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Language Facilitation Strategies

Well, it’s Week 4 of the new semester and, in our AAC classes, we’ve been talking a lot about how language is represented and organized in communication boards/books, SGDs, and AAC apps. We’ve talked about the pro’s and con’s of representing language in various ways, and discussed the options for how to set up displays so that people can easily access the words they need. At this point, we know how to choose appropriate symbols, select appropriate vocabulary, and arrange it in an appropriate format. In short, we know how to put language ‘in.’ Now comes the hard part: Getting it out. How do we get people to actually use the language that’s been so carefully stored in the no tech, low tech, and high tech AAC tools? Our June Strategy of the Month is about techniques for language facilitation. If you’re an SLP well-versed in language therapy with speaking children,... [Read More...]

Getting the Scoop on AAC

May 30, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Getting the Scoop on AAC

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...]

Magic Moments with Toca Store

May 21, 2012 by - 2 Comments

Magic Moments with Toca Store

It’s no coincidence that some of our favorite apps to use with AAC kids don’t rely on good receptive language in order to be successful and have fun. Count us among the fans of Toca Boca for their creative play-based apps with great graphics and lots of repetition with variety. In this post, we share some Magic Moments for using Toca Store as a communication-building experience.– 1. Core Word Practice: Lots of opportunities for practice with familiar nouns (e.g., banana, doll), common verbs (e.g., get, see, want) and modifiers (colors, some, little). 2. Negation: This is another fun app to use when teaching a child to use language appropriate for negation, protests, and rejection. We like teaching that under low stress conditions like this at first to build their skills. Once they get the hang of it, then we help them use it under more natural conditions. That way we can... [Read More...]

Saying "I Love You" On Mother's Day!

May 13, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Saying "I Love You" on Mother's Day

Saying “I Love You” is very important to most moms (and dads), especially on Mother’s Day (& Father’s Day).  I never need to receive a mother’s day present from my son….. he is my present….. he was born on Mother’s Day (18 years ago).  I feel like he is my never-ending perfect gift.  He says “I love you” often, even at 18.  So mixing this sentiment with my work, it saddens me to hear people say, my daughter does not “talk”, I only wish she could say “I love You“.   I have learned  that with AAC strategies, ALL children can  say “I love you”.  Here are some ways to help children (adults)  ‘say’ it more often, in a conventional way, and so everyone can hear it. Record “I Love You” on a one hit message device/card/picture (Record with #1- your child’s voice, #2 same aged matched peer, or #3... [Read More...]

Developing Your PrAACtical Learning and Resource Network

May 5, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Developing Your PrAACtical Learning and Resource Network

– Usually, our Strategy of the Month posts focus on things that SLPs and others can do to enhance AAC learning with their clients. In honor of ASHA’s Better Hearing and Speech Month, our strategy focuses on you, the SLP. – Since we started blogging and using social media, we’ve learned a lot about professional learning networks and using the internet more effectively to access resources that enrich our work. That led us to our May Strategy, PrAACtical Learning and Resource Networks. – Our plan is to share an AAC-related resource each day that will help in developing our professional resources. As we tell our graduate students, if you have a well-packed toolkit and you know what to do with those tools, nothing can stop you! – We’ll be sharing resources that build on what you already know about and have, keeping a prAACtical focus, of course –    ... [Read More...]

35 AAC Posts You May Have Missed: April, 2012

May 1, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

35 AAC Posts You May Have Missed: April, 2012

— – – Strategy of the Month From Disney Princesses to Houseplants: More on Building Communication Opportunities 5 Apps for Tempting Commenting and Other Language Functions Go Ape! 10 Commenting Communication Temptations PrAACtical Play: Creating Communication Opportunities with Favorite Toys How to Make Communication Temptations Really Work Mining Preschool Routines for PrAACtical AAC Opportunities. Meaningful Communication Opportunities – The Fives 5 ‘Go-To’ Sites for AAC and Visual Support Downloads 5 Apps for Tempting Commenting and Other Language Functions 5 AAC-Related Facebook Pages/Groups We Love 5 Tools and Tips for Making Transitions Easier 5+ Sites for Free AAC-Friendly Literacy Resources 5 eGames for Switch Users 5 AAC/AT YouTube Channels We Love – PrAACtical Thinking 49 Free or Lite Versions of AAC Apps A Myth About Visual Schedules Lives On PrAACtical Resources: Making Decisions about Reading Accessibility Options PrAACtical Resources: Toolkit for ASD PrAACtical Questions: How Do I Find Good AAC Service... [Read More...]

Special Interest Areas and Students with ASD

April 29, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Special Interest Areas and Students with ASD

Yesterday, we posted about using special interests to create prAACtical communication opportunities, our AAC intervention strategy of the month. Today, we share this Video of Week on the same topic. The team at ConnectAbility presented this video workshop on Special Interest Areas and Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. –