And the new year is off and running! Here are some posts you may have missed in your busy, AAC-filled week. Monday: PrAACtically January: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words Wednesday: Video of the Week: Communication Strategies for Adolescents as They Transition through Adulthood Thursday: AAC and Emergent Literacy: 5 Posts with Implementation Ideas
And just like that, the year is over. Ups and downs; Highs and lows. 2016 was anything but boring. Hope that 2017 is off to a great start for you and your prAACtical friends. Monday: Holiday Talk: AAC Conversations Using Partner-focused Questions Wednesday: Holiday Photos in AAC Learning: 3 Ideas for Using Them to Build Language Thursday: PrAACtical Teaching in the ASD Classroom: Predictable Chart Writing with Core Vocabulary
At the ASHA Convention last month, I chatted with an SLP about her secret longing: To take a sabbatical and travel the world to see AAC in action. Wouldn’t that be exciting?! In the meantime, we’ll have to live vicariously and peek into AAC practices through the words and pictures of dedicated professionals. Angi Pearce, a teacher at Kowhai Special School in Hastings, New Zealand, was kind enough to help us out and share her experiences in increasing AAC use in her classroom. Angi is the team leader for the Junior School classes (ages 5-11) and graciously prepared this post with support from SLP Michelle Roberts. As you’ll see, Angi is a highly experienced educator but new to the world of AAC and not afraid to take risks and embrace change. Let’s take a look at how a veteran teacher stretched herself to incorporate more AAC into her classroom. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: AAC IN THE CLASSROOM My... [Read More...]
Hope you are coping well with the busy holiday season! Here a couple of posts from our prAACtical week. Monday: PrAACtically December: Resources for A Year of Core Vocabulary Wednesday: Video of the Week: Teaching Self Regulation Skills
As usual, the ASHA Annual Convention was so chock full of AAC learning opportunities that there was no way to get to everything of interest. Here are some handouts on AAC topics from the first day of the conference. Aided Language Stimulation for All Communication Partners of Children Who Use AAC by Eric Sailers of Expressive Solutions and Jhoselle Padilla at Chula Vista Elementary School District AAC Multidisciplinary Treatment for Communication & Functional Participation by Amy Sonntag of Ohio State University and Lindsay Ripple of Akron Children’s Hospital “A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words.” An AAC Intervention for Children With Complex Communication Needs by Jamie Boster and John McCarthy of Ohio State University Expanding & Customizing Spanish Core Vocabulary for Augmentative & Alternative Communication by Amy Munekata, Bridget Carlile, and Lisa Domby of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill An Analysis of Conversational Interaction of an Individual With... [Read More...]
Monday – Site of the Month: ARASAAC Thursday – How We Do It: A Collaborative Approach to Implementing Core Language within a School-Based Setting, Part 2
Today, we welcome Dr. Kimberly Ho, SLP and Director of Speech, Language and AAC Services at Confidence Connection in Needham, Massachusetts. In this post, she discusses how professionals in her organization are supporting AAC learners with autism on the journey toward flexible, generative language. I am the Director of Speech, Language and AAC Services at an ABA clinic, so naturally we serve many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) of all ages. A vast number of learners with ASD can speak, but their speech is not functional to meet their communication needs. We have begun to provide word-based AAC systems for these students to move beyond scripting. Many individuals with ASD “script.” That is, they may not produce novel utterances, but rather chunks of phrases and sometimes entire sentences they have memorized. Sometimes this scripting is based on a character from a TV show or movie. Other times the script has been memorized in... [Read More...]
Developing effective communication systems for individuals with significant motor challenges is a challenging process. Ultimately, the goal is to provide them with tools and strategies that allow them to communicate independently and help them develop the skills needed to say what they wish to throughout their daily life experiences. As we all know, this can be a long journey. And while we work toward systems that allow them to communicate independently, they need access to language and communication now despite their motor limitations. Partner assisted scanning (PAS) is one option that works for many AAC learners. In this post, we feature a video overview of this strategy presented by SLP Maureen Nevers as part of the Communication Training Series by the Angelman Syndrome Foundation and the Foster Family Charitable Foundation, and a video of PAS in action by the Dynamic Learning Maps Professional Development (DLM PD) group under the direction... [Read More...]
We are pleased to have a return visit from special educators Lauren Pawlowski and Amy Devin with ideas for supporting AAC learners in the classroom. Amy and Lauren, who work in the public school system in Michigan, taught in resource rooms for years and have been teaching in self‐contained ASD elementary classrooms since 2009. At that time, there were few classrooms who were integrating core language instruction, but they didn’t let that stop them. Currently, they use manual communication boards, large instructional core boards, and individual AAC devices with their students. They are passionate literacy teachers and, in today’s post, tell us about their approach to shared reading lessons. Their video is chock full of tips to help you make these lessons successful. Enjoy! Shared Reading: It’s Not What They Know, It’s What They THINK! Happy Fall AAC users and facilitators! This month we would like to share some of our tips for... [Read More...]
And, just like that, another AAC Awareness Month is a wrap. (Seems like October just flew by!) Hope you had fun spreading the news about AAC options. Here are a few posts you may have missed. Monday: 5 Visual Supports for the AAC Classroom Wednesday: PrAACtically November: Resources for A Year of Core Words Thursday: How We Do It: A Collaborative Approach to Implementing Core Language within a School-Based Setting, Part 1