817 Search Results for praactical teaching

Fun Father’s Day AAC Activities

June 6, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

Fun Father's Day AAC Activities

It’s prAACtically Father’s Day.  There are many things to talk about, create, eat, and prepare for this special day.  Check out these fun activities that can be done during communication therapy, at home, or at school.  Some can be done with dad and others can be done for dad as gifts. Enjoy the communication process. Record “I Love You” on a one hit message device/card/picture.  You can give a card or talking picture as a gift.  You can use the one hit message device to tell dad “I love you” many times for father’s day and beyond. Use Talking to Dad Visual Supports/Worksheets by Joel Shaul at Autism Teaching Strategies to create meaningful conversations Play a memory game with dad that is supported with PCS (Thank you Mayer Johnson) Use a visual recipe to prepare a sweet treat for dad. Consider chocolate covered pretzels. Create a power point book about... [Read More...]

9 Tips for Better AAC Communication Throughout the Year

May 30, 2014 by - 3 Comments

9 Tips for Better AAC Communication Throughout the Year

Although Better Hearing and Speech Month is ending, we want to continue best prAACtices in all teaching interactions throughout the year.  Here are 9 AAC facilitator tips to help with this goal. Provide Aided Language Input (ALI)– ALI is modeling AAC style.  Speak AAC to the AAC user.   Use Scaffolding– Scaffolding is a verbal and visual strategy that has the facilitator build upon prior knowledge of the learner in order for the learner to integrate a new concept or skill. Model words and concepts to add information onto what the AAC user already knows and uses.  Provide Expansions and Extensions– A form of modeling.  Add a word to the spontaneous communication from the learner.  The facilitator models a conceptual or grammatical word in the form of a model. Use Recasting– Recasts serve to add or correct information without obstructing the natural flow of communication. Recasting is another form of modelling. The... [Read More...]

Resources for Families- PLN’s

May 26, 2014 by - 2 Comments

Resources for Families-PLN's

This month’s ‘Strategy of the Month’ has been focused on supporting families.  To fully support families, it is essential to provide family friendly resources that can aid in creating Personal Learning Networks (PLN’s).  The more families know and learn, the more likely the AAC learner will progress in their communication skills. Also, the more information families have, the better advocates they will become. And since families are one of the only constants in an AAC learner’s educational and life journey, the family is really the most important part the communication team.  About AAC About AAC- ASHA AAC Institute- Parent’s Corner Center for AAC & Autism AAC -Family Resources Assistive Technology Resources- Autism Speaks Communication Matters Communication Books & Boards ConnectAbility http://www.setbc.org/pictureset/ Pre-made Communication Boards Help Designing Communication Books  Free & Discounted AAC Apps Appy Malls Smart Apps for Kids Moms with Apps The iMums Apps Wheel *(categorized wheel of apps to... [Read More...]

10 Cool AAC Things to Do For Better Hearing & Speech Month

May 14, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

10 Cool AAC Things To DO for Better Hearing and Speech Month

Learn with AbleNet University. Watch excellent free AAC webinars. There are live and recorded webinars so you can learn at your convenience. Share the information with colleagues and families. Give an AAC Gift.  Create AAC informational bookmarks and distribute to educators, staff, and families.   Print some free communication boards.  Go to the PrAACtical AAC e-Tool Box and print out some great core word or activity specific communication boards.  Put in your AAC clinic tool box or share with educators or families. Debunk AAC Myths. Use our AAC Myth buster quotes.  Print and hang in public spaces so everyone can be an AAC myth buster. Learn and PrAACtice a New AAC System (device or app). Go to prAACtical AAC’s Teach Me Tuesdays and choose an app or device to learn- (Alexicom, Proloquo2go, PRC Accent, The Grid, Tap Speak Button & Sequence, Avaz, Tobii C8,  Proloquo4Text, Go Talk Now Text, Nova... [Read More...]

More Core Words Visualized

May 13, 2014 by - 3 Comments

More Core Words Visualized

As promised when we posted the January-May core words with PCS, here are June-December core words visualized with PCS.  You can print, laminate, and keep them handy as you are teaching core vocabulary.  Better Hearing and Speech Month is a great time to give them to educators and families to help everyone stay focused on the core words of the week or month. We would love if you share these core words in any other symbol sets you have created.  Have fun with 2014 core vocabulary words. 2014 June Core Words 2014 July Core Words 2014 August Core Words 2014 September Core Words 2014 October Core Words 2014 November Core Words 2014 December Core Words

Home Programming with AAC

May 12, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

Home Programming with AAC

As SLP’s we love to have families learn and carryover the work we do in speech-language treatment sessions.  This helps ensure carryover of progress and generalization of therapy success.  However, as Carole clearly illustrated last Monday, there are a lot of family dynamics, cultural issues, and family challenges that make adding extra work possibly burdensome. We really (really) do not want to burden families, but its beneficial to have AAC communication happen all day long. We once had a client who had a very huge house with lots of bedrooms, but mom chose to keep her children together in one bedroom.  This was just in case the AAC user woke in the middle of the night. Then she would have someone close by as a communication partner.  This was a family who took home programming to the max and expanded and modified it to fit their family. A main issue... [Read More...]

2014 Core Words Visualized

May 9, 2014 by - 2 Comments

2014 Core Words Visualized

At the beginning of 2014, we posted another year of core vocabulary words. If you did not have time to plug in symbols, here are the January through May core words with PCS symbols in PDF format. You can print, laminate, and keep them handy as you are teaching core words.  We also often give them to educators and families as a reminder to help everyone stay focused on the core words of the week or month. In fact, it was a parent request for these that got us motivated to get the PCS portion completed (Thanks, Liz).  Look for June – December early next week.    January 2014 Core Words February 2014 Core Words March 2014 Core Words April Core Words May Core Words You can download a PDF file with all the words from January-June, 2014 here. All of these resources can also be directly printed from the... [Read More...]

AACtual Therapy: Supporting the Development of Early Grammar with Kimberly Ho

April 3, 2014 by - Leave your thoughts

AACtual Therapy: Supporting the Development of Early Grammar with Kimberly Ho

Our guest post for today is from SLP Kimberly Ho, an AAC specialist who operates a private practice, AAC Services. I met Dr. Ho many years ago when she was getting her master’s degree at Purdue University. She went on to get her doctorate and now  consults for a number of public schools and works with individuals with AAC needs from preschoolers to adults. Kimberly is active in teaching (undergraduate and graduate courses), writing (published three articles in peer reviewed journals) and public speaking (15 presentations at regional, national and international conferences). In this post, she discusses some concepts in teaching grammar to people who are learning AAC. Traditionally, individuals with complex communication needs (CCN) were provided with communication boards or speech generating devices (SGDs) filled with topic specific vocabulary often called fringe words. The field of AAC is only just beginning to provide early communicators with access to Core... [Read More...]

10 AAC Things to Do for Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month

April 1, 2014 by - 1 Comment

10 AAC Things to Do for Autism Acceptance Month

We love  Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month. There is so much excitement and great community activities.  The month becomes very busy so we love choosing events and projects that facilitate autism acceptance and AAC learning.  We pass out materials, have contests, do extra trainings and have many public awareness events.  We make sure to support our events and activities with AAC materials.   Here are some of the things we do and recommend to support AAC and Autism learning. Please share any activities or projects that you know about. Bake, share, & eat some desserts. Use and include visual recipes when cooking. Need inspiration?..  Go to Your Special Chef for shopping lists and recipes.  Educate peers visually by using the Autism Acceptance Book: Being a Friend to Someone with Autism by Ellen Sabin Develop & Use a personal participation story (modified social story) to let alert someone that this will... [Read More...]