72 Search Results for PECS

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 24 – June 2014

June 14, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 24 - June 2014

Sunday: Video of the Week – AAC App Selection Help Monday: Strategy of the Month – Building Sentence Length Tuesday: Research Tuesday – Comparing PECS and SGDs Wednesday: Watch It Wednesday: Effective Communication Strategies Thursday: How We Do It: Using the Pocket Calendar With Heather Buhr and Dr. Kristy Weissling Friday: Evidence-Based AAC Strategies for Students with Autism with Betsy Corporale

Research Tuesday: Comparing Picture Exchange and SGDs

June 10, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

Research Tuesday: Comparing Picture Exchange and SGDs

Picture exchange is powerful strategy for building symbolic communication in individuals with significant communication difficulties. We’ve posted about implementation of PECS a few times, and included references to research supporting its efficacy in some additional posts. Today, we look at a sequence of three single subject design experimental studies by Dr. Jeff Sigafoos and other researchers that looked at how the use of picture exchange and AAC devices (SGD condition) impacted social interaction. In the initial study, the team taught requesting skills either with picture exchange or AAC devices and then looked to see if there were any changes in social interaction. They hypothesized that the physical act of picking up a symbol and giving it to someone, as with the picture exchange condition, would make the learner less likely to turn away from his communication partner. So, in addition to measuring how well the participant learned to make requests,... [Read More...]

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 16: April, 2014

April 19, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 16: April, 2014

Sunday: Video of the Week – Video Demonstrations for Teaching New Concepts and PCS Monday: How We Teach Tuesday: Let’s Go Outside! Five PrAACtical Ideas Wednesday: Talking Mats: A PrAACtical Tool Thursday: AACtual Therapy: PECS to iPad with Jason Butcher Friday: You Might be an AAC Therapist If…

On Communication and Behavior: Back to Basics

March 19, 2014 by - 4 Comments

On Communication and Behavior: Back to Basics

The other day we heard from an SLP who was supporting a child with significant communication difficulties. She contacted us because the team had hit a snag in their communication supports for this student. The student was successfully able to communicate with PECS but rarely did so. Instead, she used her body and challenging behavior to express herself most of the time. “Why does she hit when she can use her PECS book to tell us what she wants?” We’re not any more clairvoyant than you are, but we certainly had some ideas about this. Functional Communication Teaching can be very effective in helping people reduce their use of challenging behaviors in favor of more socially accepted means of communication. BUT, there are some of the basic principles that are have to be attended to when designing and implementing a set of behaviors that will replace the challenging behavior. This... [Read More...]

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #7, February 2014

February 15, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week 7, February 2014

Sunday: Video of the Week – Understanding PECS Monday: Strategy of the Month – Using Positive Reinforcement to Support AAC Learners Tuesday: Supporting Children in the Pediatric ICU Wednesday: 5 Things to Try When AAC Learners are Inconsistent Thursday: PrAACtical Peek at Wheels on the Bus Friday: Happy Valentines Day!  

3 Responses to Programs that Make Kids ‘Prove Worthiness’ Prior to Providing Access to AAC

December 13, 2013 by - 6 Comments

3 Responses to Programs that Make Kids ‘Prove Worthiness’ Prior to Providing Access to AAC

Like many of you, we continue to hear about programs that withhold AAC supports from children who are nonverbal or minimally verbal. Sometimes they point to the perceived lack of readiness that the child has for AAC, in general. Other times, they erect barriers, such as an artificial benchmark that insists that children start with no-tech AAC (e.g., communication boards, books, PECS) or low tech SGDs before ‘earning the right’ to sophisticated AAC options. As yet another year comes to a close, it is hard to believe that there are still programs, administrators, or, worse yet, our SLP colleagues who think they are truly justified in limiting access to AAC. How can we move beyond tearing our hair out, drinking excessively, or ranting to our friends? Here are some ideas. “Show me the evidence.” Ask for empirical support for the position that withholding access to AAC tools and strategies is more... [Read More...]

Strategy of the Month: Supporting Pre-Intentional Communicators

December 7, 2013 by - Leave your thoughts

Scene 1 Alex looks at the picture symbol choices placed in front of him and knocks them to the floor. Simone looks distressed while she waits for her lunch and whines as she watches her classmates eating. Jason smiles engagingly and rocks enthusiastically when his favorite aide enters the room. Kyra takes a picture from her PECS book and begins to chew on it. Scene 2 “He can’t even make choices. I’m not even sure what he wants.” “She really doesn’t communicate.” “He doesn’t mean anything by it. He does that all the time.” “She needs hand-over-hand prompting for everything.” Great kids, caring professionals. Ineffective communication. This month, we focus on ways to support children and adults at the earliest stages of communication. It isn’t easy trying to figure out how to provide effective SLP services to individuals who are not yet sending messages intentionally. Communicators at the pre-intentional level are... [Read More...]

How I Do It: AUTISM AND AAC: FIVE THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN by Deanne Shoyer

October 31, 2013 by - 9 Comments

How I do It 5 AAC Things I wish I had Known by Deanne Shoyer

We are so pleased to have connected with  Deanne Shoyer from Small But Kinda Mighty and even happier that she is our guest blogger today.  Deanne is a mom of twin boys who both are on the autism spectrum.  Deanne successfully fundraised to buy iPads for her boys and has been active for more than 3 years in social media and in the special needs app community.  She has written about many things but often focuses on implementing AAC in a very PrAACtical way.  Please feel free to share this very important post as she highlights AAC, what she has learned, and how it may help others. by Deanne Shoyer at  Small But Kinda Mighty (original post at Small But Kinda Mighty) In the title of this post I’ve linked autism and AAC for a specific reason. A lot of the points here are equally applicable to people who have a... [Read More...]

One Can Never Have Too Many Visuals

August 13, 2013 by - 2 Comments

One Can Never Have Too Many Visuals with Robin McCallister & Jane Rairden

Today, we are so excited to have our new friends from the awesome blog lunchbuddiesplus sharing how and why they incorporate visual supports into their sessions.  In their lunchbuddiesplus group sessions, the focus is on social skills and they find that visual supports make a huge positive impact.  So as you get ready for back to school, think about the visual supports that will help make your goals and activities go smoothly. Robin McCallister is a Speech/Language Pathologist working at Mary Munford Elementary School in the Richmond City School district in Richmond, Va.  She has 36 years of experience in the public schools.  Currently, she spends most of the school day working withchildrenwho experience autism.  She especially enjoys  the social skills groups known at Mary Munford as “lunch buddies”.  Visuals are a big part of social skills coaching and Robin knows that one can never have too many visuals!  You are invited... [Read More...]

31 AAC Posts You May Have Missed in July

August 5, 2013 by - Leave your thoughts

31 Posts You May Have Missed In July

PrAACtical Thinking Free Text-based AAC Apps for the iPad PrAACtical Questions: Can Students Take Their AAC Device Home? PrAACtical AAC Learning & July 4th: Get Ready Get Set Go 4 Free July 4th Apps to SPARK Commenting 30 Posts You May Have Missed in June 4+AAC Tips for Talking About July 4th AFTER the Festivities PrAACtically Ready to Read Did You Know: AADMD Offers Specialty Webinars Visual Schedule Myths Live On..& On Getting to Yes Working with Worksheets Apps to Prepare, Learn, & Talk About Summer Vacations Modify a Battery-Operated Toy To Make It Accessible By Switches 5 Great Ways To Help People with AAC Needs Develop Inner Speech What’s the Connection: Core Vocabulary and Visual Schedules Random App of Kindness Giveaway: Talk About Food Create Your Own Style PECS Book 5 Things to Consider About Assigning ‘Homework’ to Your AAC Clients 8Friday Fun: 8 AAC Activities that are Fast... [Read More...]