Round 3: A PrAACtical Celebration & Giveaway
We have been having a wonderful time with our prAACtical celebration! So far, we’ve awarded prizes to 25 different AAC-lovers, thanks to the generosity of a lot of companies and individuals. What a terrific group!
Ablenet, Inc
Abilipad
Alexicom
Avaz
BeeVisual
Dynavox/Mayer Johnson
Gail Van Tatenhove, PA
Hump Software
iClick iTalk
MarbleSoft
News-2-You
Patient Provider Communication
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company
RJ Cooper
Safe N Sound Mobile
Say It with Symbols
Silver Lining Multimedia
SpeechPathology.com
TapSpeak
TherapyBox/TBoxApps
Verbally
How Does It Work?
- We use Rafflecopter to administer the giveaways. All entries made through there will be counted toward our drawings.
- We’re holding four drawings spaced throughout the month, and will draw two more sets of winners, one on October 24 and the other on October 31.
- Prizes are randomly assigned to each winner. We’ll send an email to each one letting them know what they’ve one.
- The winners will have 5 days to respond to our email.
- You’ll need to be a good sport to play along because we’re not going to get into requests for specific prizes or substitutions. (As I learned from wise-beyond-her-years Pauleen, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” Love that!)
- We’ll send out the prizes. And, hopefully, the winners will take a moment to thank the prize donors.
How Often Can You Enter?
That depends on what kind of entry it is. See our AAC Awareness Rafflecopters for details.
The Fine Print
- Winners have 5 days to respond to the email with prize notification. On day 6 after the notification was sent, we will draw a new winner for that prize. Check your spam filters so you don’t miss our notification.
- Tech Support: Regrettably, we can’t provide it. If you have trouble with Flickr, Scoop.It, Twitter, or Facebook or anything like that, you’ll have to rely on your problem-solving skills to FIO (figure it out). We’re new to a lot of this ourselves, so we probably wouldn’t be much help anyway.
- In the event of unforeseen difficulties with prize donors or other things that give us grief, we reserve the right to make prize substitutions.
- What if you don’t like or need your prize? There’s probably someone in your community who does. Consider donating it to a local school, hospital, clinic, or library. We won’t be making substitutions based on winners’ preferences. (Sorry, folks. We gotta leave some time in the day for our real jobs.)
- The app codes that were donated are for the US app store.
- Winners are eligible to enter and win additional prizes in the remaining rounds.
- iPads are not included.
- Be sure to adhere to privacy guidelines for your profession and/or agency when posting pictures.
- We are not responsible for prizes that get lost in the mail.
That’s about it.
There are close to $2,500 worth of prizes that have been donated by people who love AAC as much as we do. Whether or not you decide to enter, we hope you can take a minute to support those who’ve generously contributed to this prAACtical celebration.
Good luck, everyone!
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC Awareness Month, Giveaway
This post was written by Carole Zangari
18 Comments
My son is using proloquo2go on an ipad. We are working on core vocabulary and were using a PODD as well as continued a Total Communication approach.
Thanks for your comment, Lisa. We love hearing about kids who are using a variety of tools and strategies. Would love to know more about the ways you are using this at home. I think a lot of parents are looking for ways to support their children in learning these tools.
We use the P2G for daily routines, and we have transferred all the visual strips we have around the house onto the P2G as well, which has really helped in the community (e.g. public bathrooms, water fountain use, schedule of activities). My son uses it for communicating his wants and needs and has recently started commenting too… very exciting!!
We use visuals in a binder to teach meaning of specific targeted words/pictures. We have a 3 inch binder, which started as a pecs book of sorts, but now use it for teaching. They are removable, so we have had him remove them and come start a conversation with them as well. We also have his PODD book in a designated place at all times. This is a great backup should the ipad need charging, or ever need repair. It’s labor intensive at times, but the pay off has been huge.
Through all this, we found out how funny our son is. He has a great sense of humor!!
Today he told me he played ball in the playshed during recess. (I confirmed it with an IA, it was basketball). It’s wonderful to know there are a variety of aac out there to help him communicate!
Wow Lisa, just saw your comment and you mention some really great communication and language learning strategies! I love that your son has been given the opportunities to learn to talk about past events, and use humor. He may find the AAC app Fat Cat Spooky Chat (free) ‘funny’ for halloween. Many of my students love the ‘heh’ heh’ heh’ as well as some of the other ‘small talk options’. Please keep us updated!
So excited. You are doing great work to promote AAC. Attending the AT Conference at my technical training center in PA. Can’t wait to see what’s new in AAC.
Thanks for you, Jillian! Wish we could join you at the training! Come back and share something you’ve picked up from that when you get the chance. We’d love to share it on our PrAACtical AAC Facebook page to get some discussion going. 🙂
I would love to see simple ideas/activities to help ease classroom teachers into using AAC. I find many teachers are hesitant to use AAC devices, but if i can find simple activities for them, i think they might use it more and more.
Oooh, Carrie! That is such a great idea! Message us if you can elaborate on what you think would be helpful or if you’d like to collaborate on a post. 🙂
I love all the ideas for activites I can use in my classroom! What would I like to see more of? You guys are covering it all! I am able to get ideas that I can use or adapt for all my students!!
We’re thrilled to hear that, Cassie! Sounds like you have adapted a ‘can – do’ attitude. Now: What can we do to get that to spread to others??
I’ve come to your site to learn more about how to use alternative forms to communicate with my son. I’m very impressed by the information you have on your site. I appreciate having a “go to” site filled with quality information and visual communication ideas.
Welcome, Mark! There are a lot of great SLPs and teachers here and we all wish you well. If you haven’t already done so, check out our Facebook page. On a good week, we update that a few times a day with news, tips, resources, etc. Feel free to post things there as well, or ask questions as you move forward in your AAC learning journey.
I am attending the Northwest Augmentative Communication Society’s annual conference tomorrow. Cathy Binger is presenting “Building Success with AAC: The Devil is in the Details”. Looking forward to it!
Very cool! She has great information. Learn a lot and have fun! Thanks for sharing.
I think you guys are doing an amazing job and this is a great resource for me as an SLP who loves AAC! There is so much on the web and Facebook now on AAC and apps, that I would like to continue to see non-app related posts, videos, and ideas! Love seeing the kids in action such as a video you posted on partner-assisted scanning.
Thanks for that feedback, Rebecca. It’s great to know what kinds of posts are helpful. We’re thinking about doing a bunch on vocabulary teaching. Any thoughts?
I love your website! It is now one of those tabs that is always up on my browser! You already are doing a whole lot for the AAC community. I guess I would like to see more strategy tips for incorporating AAC into daily life (classroom, home, work, etc.). After all, being able to ‘chat’ with the SLP only gets a user so far in life. Real success is measured by how seamlessly the user communicates everywhere and with everyone.
SUCH a good point, Kim! We continually struggle with how to help other stakeholders become AAC-friendly while the communicator is still developing their skills. It is tough for everyone involved, but, really, there isn’t much choice in the matter if we want to build strong communicators.