It’s been a fine week for AAC! Monday – Appy Learning with The Speech Techie Tuesday – Core Vocabulary Resources for July Wednesday – Video of the Week: Demystifying AAC Thursday – PrAACtically July: Core Word Calendar by Rachael Langley Hope you had some AAC fun, too!
Today, we welcome back Angela Adams, a Washington-based SLP. She currently works with students aged 11- 21 years in a small school district in the Pacific Northwest. Angela has 14 years experience, in both private practice and public school settings. She has a passion for helping adolescents and young adults with AAC needs develeop their communication skills. In this post, she shares some thoughts on getting older students started on AAC. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: What do you do when the new user of AAC is a teen or young adult? Core vocabulary, phrase-based communication, category- and topic-based pages….so many options for the new AAC user. THE CHALLENGES ARE REAL: What happens when the new user is a teen or a young adult? When in the public school system, what happens when this teen or young adult will only be our student 5 more years or 3 more or 1 more? What about our new AAC users... [Read More...]
Karen Natoci is back with another wonderful book and plenty of ideas for AAC implementation. Enjoy! Book: Over in the Garden, by Jennifer Ward, Illustrated by Kenneth J. Spengler Core Vocabulary focus: LOOK, IT, LIKE, NOT LIKE, IN, UH-OH OR OOPS. Literacy Level: Emergent COMMUNICATION Matrix Level: I-VII Four Block focus: Shared Reading and Working with Words (at the alphabet/rhyme level) —————————————————— It is spring at our school in Michigan and everything is green and the plants are beginning to grow, fast! I couldn’t wait to share my favorite book to sing: Over in the Garden! We found the nearest plant, gathered a few plastic bugs, adapted the book with some cut out fringe words (each type of bug) and I sang into the microphone! I decided to sing the book and play with sustaining certain words as you will see in this very short video. The rhythm, rhyme and... [Read More...]
Monday – PrAACtically June: Core Word Calendar by Rachael Langley Tuesday – AACtual Therapy: Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag with Dr. Jill Senner and Matthew Baud Wednesday – Video of the Week: Core Vocabulary Overview Thursday – 5 Ways to Use Magazines in AAC Therapy
Monday – On Memorial Day Tuesday – How I Do It: Conversation Practice with Teens and Young Adults with Angela Adams Wednesday – Video of the Week: Intro to PBS Thursday – Core Vocabulary Resources for June
AAC clinicians are a creative bunch. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit some colleagues and was excited to see how they are repurposing free/low cost apps to build engagement and interaction in learners with significant communication challenges. Many of us work with learners who are highly motivated by mobile devices and apps that make music or sound, but still have a way to go to build their skills in using them. For some, we find that using apps that are relatively simple and easy (both motorically and cognitively), can spice up a session. Here are some sound/music cause and effect apps to explore. Of course, these apps are intended for a purpose completely different than how we are using them in therapy. Nonetheless, kids love them and that means that we SLPs can get a lot of mileage out of using apps like these in our therapy sessions. Burp... [Read More...]
Monday – Core Vocabulary Resources for May Tuesday – How I Do It: Classroom Support for Students with AAC Needs by Tina Moreno Wednesday – Video of the Week: Multimodal Communication in the Classroom Thursday – PrAACtically Reading: The Cat in the Hat with Karen Natoci
Who doesn’t love reading books by Theodor Seuss Guisel? Michigan-based SLP Karen Natoci is back to show us how she is using one of his most beloved books to integrate language and literacy instruction with the AAC learners in some of the classrooms she serves. Be sure to download her lesson plan and watch the video clip of Karen in AACtion. Enjoy! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: CLASSIC Book: The CAT in the HAT, by Dr. Seuss Core Vocabulary focus: LOOK, NOT, LIKE, NOT LIKE, NO, GO, DO, UH-OH or OOPS. COMMUNICATION Matrix Level: I-VII Four Block focus: Shared Reading and Working with Words (at the alphabet/rhyme level) ————————————————————————————————————————————- It is Spirit Week at our school and Monday is Hat DAY!! What better excuse to read, The Cat in the Hat!! The rhythm of the reading along with the site of all of our wacky hats made for a fun morning in room 8!... [Read More...]
Many of you have reached out to say how much you’ve appreciated the prAACtical suggestions provided by Nerissa Hall and Hillary Jellison, New England-based SLPs and owners of Commūnicāre, LLC. We’re excited to have them back, especially because they are talking about something near and dear to our hearts: Implement a core vocabulary approach in their AAC therapy. In this post, they give us a peek into the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of making and using communication boards that are rich in core words. In their typically generous fashion, they also share templates for the boards that they make. How We Do It: Using Language Boards to Support AAC Use There are a number of different strategies one can use to support an individual’s use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). We know that aided language stimulation, augmented input, and AAC modeling are important and effective ways of supporting AAC use. By using... [Read More...]
While we may play a variety of roles, a commonality among those of us on teams serving individuals with AAC needs is that we often struggle with developing goals that are meaningful. Let’s work together to develop a list of potential goals that we can reflect on as we work with our clients and their families on a plan for becoming more competent communicators. There are two sections in this post: Qualifiers (for information applying to all goals) and Goal Areas (for actual goals). This is not meant to be a comprehensive list but rather a starting point for a collaborative document. Please join the effort by adding goals in the comment area below or reaching out using our contact form. SECTION 1: QUALIFIERS Each goal can be prefaced with a description of the communicator’s AAC system or the elements of that system can be named. Terms used in this document... [Read More...]