108 Search Results for rating scale
November 20, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
An essential part of the model we shared for AAC semantic intervention is Step 2, teaching the new words with explicit instruction activities. In our posts, explicit instruction refers to the process of designing and using carefully planned sequence of empirically-supported teaching activities. Though focused on reading, not vocabulary, development, this PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Anita Archer gives an excellent overview of the characteristics of explicit instruction. In our initial teaching of new words, we to be sure that the learners have frequent opportunities to respond: Active participation is critical at this point. We have to give the learner a lot of opportunities to say the word (e.g.,“resume”) and tell about it (e.g., “keep going,” “start again and not stop,” “verb”, etc.). We want to elicit a lot of responses so that we can monitor their performance. That allows us to provide feedback that is affirmative when the learners respond... [Read More...]
November 17, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. Plutarch Last week, Robin discussed some strategies and activities for teaching new words to individuals who are at the earlier stages of language learning. This week, we move ahead and address semantic instruction for individuals who regularly create sentences to express themselves. One of my favorite things about working with AAC learners at this level is the opportunity for having metalinguistic conversations. Getting them to think and talk about language can accelerate their learning. Here are some prAACtical thoughts on how this relates to semantics with a focus on building word consciousness. We’re all familiar with music appreciation and art appreciation. I always think of word consciousness as a sort of like word appreciation. It refers to an awareness that words are the building blocks of language and that they can be examined and manipulated... [Read More...]
August 27, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
“How was school?” (Good) “What did you do?” (Nothing) This scenario plays out in many cars and kitchens in the after school hours and it can be hard to know who is more frustrated: the kids for being asked or the parents for not getting satisfactory answers. And still, we repeat the process day after day. Of course, we want to know the fine details of what happened and how our children felt, but in some cases, we’d settle for ANY school-related conversation at all. I’ll be the first to admit that it took me way too long to get the hang of how to get information about my children’s school days, and it seemed like just when I did, pow! They were pre-teens and then teenagers. New rule book. Here are some ‘lessons learned’ along the way about those afterschool conversations and some suggestions for parents of the kids... [Read More...]
August 22, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
We tried to be patient. We really did. We tried to wait until we had the new venue for our site all figured out and ready to go, but the truth is, we missed blogging and hated the thought of going a few more weeks without being able to post. So we decided to reactivate our old site for the time being and post occasionally to this site. Pardon our dorky look, please. In case you missed these on Facebook, here are are a couple of things we shared in the past few weeks: Lemonade: http://screencast.com/t/xaFcbxySW Building Classroom Participation: http://www.screencast.com/users/CZee/folders/Jing/media/15818f72-c49f-4da6-a12d-e52250794234 PrAACtical Alert: Online Trainings: http://bit.ly/NZ9HYT COCOA: http://www.edutecher.net/educlipper/index.php?shareImgid=2478 AAC Rating Scales: http://www.edutecher.net/educlipper/index.php?shareImgid=2499 and http://bit.ly/Ocgte5 And now onto something new… Last week, I had the chance to talk with Karyn, a mom whose adorable daughter with significant vision impairment and multiple disabilities is entering school for the first time. As she helped... [Read More...]
August 1, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Biennial Conference: ISAAC 2012 PrAACtically There: ISAAC 2012 Day 1 at ISAAC 2012: What You Should Know About AAC’s Expanding Role in Health Care ISAAC 2012, Day 2: AAC Goes to Preschool ISAAC 2012, Day 3: Let the Games Begin ISAAC 2012, Day 4 – The Fives 5+5 Commandments for Speech Output Communication 5 Under-Used Strategies in AAC 5 Online Notebooks Full of AAC 5 Adapted Play Resources for Children with Motor Impairment – PrAACtical Thinking 92 Free or Lite Versions of AAC Apps PrAACtical Alert: Free AAC Evaluation App This Week Visualize 9 Nice Things to Say to Students who AAC PrAACtical Thoughts About Challenging Behavior PrAACtical Resource: Searching for AAC Devices with SpeechBubble AAC Assessment Round-Up 5 Ways to Use Rating Scales to Enhance Communication with AAC PrAACtical Alert: The World’s AAC Conference Comes to You (Well, a little bit of it) Power of the Visual Planner: 20... [Read More...]
July 14, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
1. Partner-assisted scanning (PAS) offers great flexibility and spontaneity. Don’t want to take your SGD to the beach? A print-out of the screens and PAS is a great option. Missing key messages for the trip to the doctor’s office? A minute of brainstorming and the use of PAS may just save the day. No way for your client to access her device once she’s in bed? A communication board/book and PAS just might do the trick. – 2. Voice banking: For people are likely to lose their speech due to a degenerative disease, like ALS, the option of saving samples of their speech and having it digitized for future use seems to hold great appeal. We’d love to see more SLPs familiarize themselves with this strategy and the tools to implement it, so that this option is more widely used about individuals whose speech is deteriorating. – 3. Qualitative rating... [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...]
February 25, 2012
by Robin Parker -
I was in the mall with my teenage daughter yesterday (because that is her favorite place to go) and we saw a group of adults with developmental disabilities. Some of the group members were in wheelchairs and others walked. It appeared that they were on a ‘field trip’ or community outing. My daughter has been ‘working’ with me since she participated as a ‘typical’ peer for various pragmatic groups while she was in preschool. She has been known to regularly (and not always so quietly) identify people who I must know since “they probably go to my clinic”. This would occur even if we were nowhere close to the geographical location of ‘my’ clinic. She has been known to find people who probably need my services so I can help them ‘talk better’. Although my daughter seems to be doing a lot of identifying without any formal training, I have to... [Read More...]
May 20, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
Our series on AAC group therapy continues with guest authors Marisa Portanova and Marnina Allis. In today’s post, they share ideas for helping young AAC users enhance their literacy skills. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: PrAACtical AAC Groups Made Easy – Let’s Be Authors Last week, we discussed our ongoing weekly groups. Once we had success and saw progress made in the weekly groups, we came up with the concept of “AAC intensive groups,” where children would come in over a school break for a week and participate in the AAC groups for 5 consecutive days, for a longer stretch (about two and a half hours). This gave children a chance to interact with children from different classes and helped reduce the regression of learned AAC skills over the school break. During those weeks, we picked one book per day for the first 4 days. Day 5 was for review, discussing opinions of each... [Read More...]
May 13, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
We’re excited to welcome back guest authors Marisa Portanova and Marnina Allis to extend the conversation about running AAC groups for children. Enjoy! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: PrAACtical AAC Groups Made Easy – Let’s Have a Weekly Social Lions and tigers and AAC groups, OH MY! Group therapy can be intimidating. We have some tips, tricks and ideas we want to share to help you get started. Let’s jump in! So welcome back, and thanks for following along our AAC group’s journey with us. Within Blythedale Children’s Hospital, we have a school program run in coordination with the Mount Pleasant Blythedale Union Free School District. These children come to school on a regular school calendar, including the extended school year 6-week summer session. Once we were doing groups with our verbal children, we decided to start groups for our AAC users. We wanted to model core language and target literacy, so we made... [Read More...]