This week’s video features a presentation by Lisa Lehman, winner of the 2012 ISAAC-Words+ Outstanding Consumer Lecture Award. Presented in Pittsburgh at ISAAC’s Biennial Conference last summer, Lisa addresses the topic of intimacy in the human experience.
For school-aged children, few things are more painful that being excluded from a group. Today we’re excited to share a series of videos from SET-BC on the topic of social inclusion. Laurie Smith and Lorraine Kamp produced two substantial videos entitled Speaking Out and Joining In. They also have links with shorter videos on some of the strategies. Quick Soapbox: Fellow SLPs, this is important stuff. All the AAC in the world won’t matter if people are isolated or lonely. The communication and social skills it takes to develop and maintain meaningful relationships outside of the family is something that we can address in the goals we write and the therapy we provide. We can do something about this.
If you’re in a healthcare setting, you probably have noticed the increased attention to communication issues between healthcare providers and individuals who are ‘communication vulnerable.’ As all of us well know, people with AAC needs are certainly in that category. Many of us have worked with AAC clients who’ve had negative experiences communicating with healthcare providers in emergency situations, hospital visits, medical procedures, and just routine preventative care. Our featured video this week is on The Role of AAC in Effective Patient Provider Communication by John Costello, Director of the Augmentative Communication Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. The presentation is part of a larger series organized by Patient Provider Communication network and Sarah Blackstone.
Getting good assessment information on learners with multiple disabilities, hearing, and vision loss is difficult, to say the least. Today we travel to the Netherlands to learn from Dr. Jan Van Dijk, who has pioneered an approach to working with individuals who have deafblindness. This series of webcasts, produced by Perkins School, discusses the theoretical underpinnings and practical aspects of the Van Dijk approach to child-guided assessment.
Third grade is a tough year, but with kids like this it seems like anything is possible. Enjoy this great video from the team at Centennial School. Well done!
Video modeling is an empirically supported intervention strategy hat more of us could be using in our clinical work. This week we feature some examples of video modeling for some common communication behaviors. We love the fact that these focus on adults. Kudos to the team at Villa Esperanza Speech and Language Center for making and sharing these videos. Asking for a Break Saying Goodbye
We’re always looking for great materials to share with colleagues and parents about topics related to AAC. This video by OCALI (the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence) has been one of our favorites. It gives a brief overview of why visual supports are so important in the educational and clinical services provided to individual with ASD and other developmental disabilities.
This week our video focuses on the little ones and features a detailed workshop presentation by OT Amy Henningsen. If you serve very young children, you’ll find this video extremely helpful. It is hosted by wonderful team at the Utah Assistive Technology Program. –
Dan Habib’s film, Thaysa, needs no introduction. Enjoy!
We love this idea from Amy Laurent about Helping Hands, a positive and proactive way for children to get help when they need it. The strategy involves placing a visual support, such as a picture of Helping Hands, around the classroom in places where the student is likely to need assistance. Her Helping Hands video explains it in more detail. We love the proactive nature of this strategy, which aims to prevent frustration, rather than waiting for a problem to occur. We took a stab at creating some visual supports that can be used with the Helping Hands strategy, and you can download it below.