794 Search Results for praactical teaching
January 20, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Gone to an AAC conference presentation lately? Seen an AAC webinar? Read an article on AAC therapies? Chances are that they’ve at least mentioned some of the benefits of teaching core vocabulary. Teaching a relatively small set of powerful words is a strategy that empowers language learners and allows them to communicate across contexts. If you are following along with our A Year of Core Words (2013) or A(nother) Year of Core Vocabulary (2014), you may have printed out some of the word cards to use with the AAC learners in your life. Thanks to the kindness of PrAACtical AAC readers we have posts with a variety of resources: Minspeak/Unity version: 2013 PCS versions: 2013 , 2014 Speak for Yourself version: 2014 SymbolStix version: 2013 Once you have them, the idea is to use those to plan learning activities that focus on those particular core words for the month. Let’s... [Read More...]
December 23, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Don’t pre-empt: Give them a chance to express themselves by not automatically anticipating and meeting every need they have. What can make us nurturing caregivers sometimes gets in the way of building new communication skills. Create opportunities: Engineer those ‘teachable moments’ by using communication temptations. Making them want to communicate is half the battle. Slow down and pause: Nature abhors a vacuum. And we SLPs have a terrible time NOT talking. That’s a shame, really, because those ‘perfect pauses’ are wonderful teaching tools. Speak AAC: We can’t say this often enough. To teach someone to communicate with AAC symbols, we must speak to the learners using those same tools. When we want someone to use their communication aid more often, we make it a priority for US to use the AAC more frequently. That’s just how it works for beginning communicators. Prompt wisely: A little prompting is a good and... [Read More...]
December 11, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Today we welcome back SLP Shareka Bentham to share her prAACtical adventures in the kitchen. You can see her previous posts here. For the past few months I have been having lots of fun using functional ways to teach my little ones vocabulary for items around the house. “Around the kitchen” is a favourite theme, since we always get to explore the kitchen, and make some yummy treats. I’ve found in my sessions that many children can recognize many of the items in the kitchen, and are aware of their function, but don’t actually know the names of these objects. It has been my goal then for children to be able to label at least 15 items within the kitchen. Vocab items range from the fridge, stove, blender, to food items, spoons, dish towel. Through these activities we have also highlighted the need to be able to talk about many... [Read More...]
November 23, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
We’re always happy to find resources that can help our prAACtical learners deal with complex emotions. In this post, we return to the work of Joel Shaul, author of the Autism Teaching Strategies site. We saw the first 4 videos in this post. Video 5: Anxiety – Predicting Without Proof Video 6: When Your Mind Gets Stuck on Sad Video 7: When Your Mind Blames Too Much Video 8: Rigid Thinking
November 10, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
We’ve talked a lot about prompting strategies in previous posts, but today we look at one specific type: Physical assistance. Whether it is pointing to a symbol, activating the message window, turning pages in a communication book, or other early skills, beginning users of AAC often need a good deal of physical support to exhibit the desired behavior. Our first inclination may be to help the learner by using hand-over-hand (HOH) prompting, which is certainly effective in guiding them through the behavior. An even better way to support them, though, is hand-under-hand (HUH) prompting. With HUH, we guide learners by placing our hands under their hand (or just next to their hand) as we complete the desired behavior. HUH is frequently used with learners who have vision impairments and those who are deafblind. We find that it has much broader utility and can be a superior way of supporting some students... [Read More...]
October 26, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Have you heard enough about core vocabulary yet? Most SLPs are on board with the concept, but still appreciate information about how to implement it in their intervention. In this video, master clinician Gail Van Tatenhove shares some prAACtical ideas for using core words in activity-based instruction.
October 17, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
“I don’t want to go now. I’m tired.” “Can you be quiet? I don’t feel well.” “My ear is throbbing.” “I have a such a headache.” “Don’t take me in the car. My stomach’s upset.” Imagine not being able to manage these symptoms or even say these things to get someone to help you. Good SLPs get input from families during the goal-setting process. Often, families indicate that they want their son/daughter to be able to let them know when they are sick or in pain. This makes sense, of course, but it isn’t an easy skill set to build. Here are some things that have worked for us. Make sure the right vocabulary is there: Body parts, feelings, words related to injury or illness, modifiers to tell how much, locatives to tell where. How can we expect AAC learners to communicate when they are unwell if we don’t provide... [Read More...]
October 8, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
There is no better time that AAC Awareness Month to see and hear directly from people who use AAC. A lot of focus is on children and education, but this is a great reminder that no one is too old or too anything to learn to improve their communication skills. Thanks to Deanna Wagner, (who has done some terrific posts for us here, here, and here), and her clients at the Valley of the Sun School and Habilitation Center for making this video and sharing it with the rest of us.
September 22, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
We can’t complete our thoughts on engaging AAC learners without a bit of conversation around the topic of priorities. Here’s the main idea: Go into each activity having a clear priority for what you want to achieve. Everything else become negotiable. As SLPs, sometimes we want it all. We want therapy activities where the AAC learner initiates communications, uses new vocabulary, creates novel sentences, experiments with new grammatical forms, and kicks some morphological butt. We.want.it.all. After a few decades of being an AAC practitioner, I think I’m finally learning that trying to have it all isn’t always the best option. It isn’t about what I want, it’s about what my client needs. Sigh. In this approach, we look at the lesson or activity and create our “Must Have List.’ For Mayra, a kindergartner just learning to use symbols for the first time, our lessons ‘must’ be engaging, have high pay-off... [Read More...]
September 18, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
What’s more fun than using story books to teaching language to young children with AAC needs? Today, we hear from Kimberly Scanlon, an SLP practicing in New Jersey. Kimberley is is a devoted mom, wife and dog lover and blogs at Scanlon Speech and My Toddler Talks. She is the author of My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child’s Language Development and is finishing a unique picture and activity workbook, Learning to Read is a Ball. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Hold on to your undies, today we’re going to talk about poop, diapers, and the location of where various animals go potty. Sounds like a good time, right? Kidding aside, in this post I’m going to show you how to use this adorable picture book, Do You Wear Diapers? by Tanya Roitman to facilitate language and emergent literacy development in toddlers and preschoolers. What’s this book about? It’s a potty book! This adorable board book... [Read More...]