School Year of Core Vocabulary Words: AAC Resources for Month 8 (March) by Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, & Beth Lytle

February 25, 2021 by Carole Zangari - Leave your thoughts

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Welcome to a new post in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words Series! Guest authors Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, and Beth Lytle are back to focus on a selected set of words to highlight for the month. In addition to their wonderful Activity Packets, containing sheets on highlighting these words in a variety of activities, they also share helpful tips for expanding language. Finally, don’t miss the data collection forms specific to Level 1 and Level 2 words.

If you are new to this series, you may want to review the introduction that our series authors created before delving into this month’s target words. You can see the guest authors’ overview here. You can also review the first 7 months of the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words using the links at the bottom of this post.

A SCHOOL YEAR OF CORE- INTRODUCTION- MARCH

To the parents, teachers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Paraprofessionals, friends, and other curious professionals or communicators – welcome back to the monthly School Year of Core Words- March 2021 Edition.

Over the last few months, we have continued to expand our activities to reach the needs of students ranging from young children to young adults. We hope that these activities will continue to assist you in facilitating and integrating the use of core vocabulary regardless of the age of the student.

Many of the March Level 1 and Level 2 weeks are packed with words that are opposites. This can be a fun way to teach the contrast between the two words. As always, tailor this to your students’ needs and level, and feel free to get creative with how you present the materials.

We are thankful for the amazing Core Contributors who have worked tirelessly to create the activity sheets and resources in the postings. We are continuing to work in teams to create resources. We have learned that working together brings diverse and rich ideas that we want to impart on all of you and your incredible students.

Our Featured Core Contributors for the Month of March include:

Mary Hamilton
Nico Lu
Jennifer Yoshimura
Jamie Deiner
Diana V Angeles
Amy Burt
Moira Ikeda
Wes Heidenreich
Sophie Goodwin
Liz Cambra
Jessica Oseguera
Jordan Stuhltrager
Kelsey Robin
Shanaz Faisal
Meaghan Rose Baron
Beth Kenney

If you’ve ever considered joining us, please do so by emailing us and becoming part of our community of learning and sharing.

Enjoy Month 8 of the School Year of Core Words!

THE WORDS

Level 1 words for March: they, live, place, ride, dress, ask, question, these, change, hear, front, back, loud, quiet, silly

The suggested sequence for implementation is listed below:

Week 1: they, live, place, ride
Week 2: dress, ask, question, these
Week 3: change, hear, front, back
Week 4: loud, quiet, silly

Level 2 words for March: early, late, agree, disagree, stay, leave, communicate, speak, hide, find, full, empty, pick, important, grouchy, grumpy

The suggested order for these words is listed below:

Week 1: early, late, agree, disagree
Week 2: stay, leave, communicate, speak
Week 3: hide, find, full, empty
Week 4: pick, important, grouchy, grumpy

THE SYMBOLS

You can download grids with the symbols for this month’s words from the lists below. These handy tools can help us remember what words to focus on and be useful in our intervention and instruction.

Level 1 Words

Level 2 Words

THE ACTIVITIES

These sets of Activity Packets are divided into weeks and can be downloaded for easy access.

Activity Packets for Level 1 Words

Activity Packets for Level 2 Words

Strategy of the Month: EXTENDING, EXPANDING AND ELABORATING

The AAC strategy of Extending, Expanding, and Elaborating focuses on communication partners responding to what students express by providing immediate, (simultaneous) verbal and AAC system modeling based on the student’s unique language goals. As an example, students at the single-word level may have a goal to produce two-word utterances and therefore the ‘add a word’ approach could be utilized, (providing modeling by adding a word to the utterance/word produced). Such added words could be targeted as pronouns, verbs, or descriptors, (for added specificity). Intermediate to advanced communicators would have different, higher-level language goals and targets that are individualized. When using the Extending, Expanding, and Elaborating approach, it is suggested that such modeling is carried out in a positive, upbeat tone and with correct grammar and syntax.

Please find the following additional resources on Extending, Expanding and Elaborating below. These resources will be helpful for individual learning and/or for team training.

We will be incorporating this strategy in all of our Activity Sheets surrounding the targeted core words. Until it becomes a habit, please try to create intentional opportunities to practice this strategy.

Resources

Expanding AAC Learners’ Single Word Utterances PrAACtical AAC, Carole Zangari, March 2018
Building Sentence Length: Say it Spontaneously PrAACtical AAC, Robin Parker, June, 2014
More Thoughts about Reinforcement in AAC Therapy, PrAACtical AAC, Carole Zangari, February 2014
Language Facilitation Strategies, PrAACtical AAC, Carole Zangari June 2, 2012

DATA COLLECTION & ACCOUNTABILITY FORMS

Taking data to measure performance and keeping track of our own modeling behavior are two things we can do to strengthen our AAC teaching. Here are some forms that you can use to support those efforts.

This posting is dedicated to all of you SLP’s, parents, educators, and therapists who are making a difference every day!

About the School Year of Core Vocabulary Series Authors

Michaela Sullivan is an SLP who specializes in the fields of AAC and AT. She currently works within the San Francisco Unified School District on the AAC Support Team where she supervises graduate students, works in a transition program, and on special projects. Ms. Sullivan also has a private practice. She has been a presenter in the field of SLP and AAC at state and national conventions. She serves as a board member and volunteer for the Nika Project, providing services, supports, resources, training, and repurposed equipment for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and internationally.

Alisa Lego is a second-year graduate student and candidate for Master of Science in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at San Francisco State University. Alisa is specializing in AAC through San Francisco State University’s federally funded Project Building Bridges. Alisa is also a candidate for the Autism Spectrum Graduate Certificate. Through Project Building Bridges, she has joined the Nika project and is providing resources for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and across the globe. You can follow Alisa on Instagram at @newfriendscollective.

Beth Lytle is a second-year graduate student and candidate for Master of Science in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at San Francisco State University. Beth is specializing in AAC through San Francisco State University’s federally funded Project Building Bridges. Through Project Building Bridges, she has joined the Nika project and is providing resources for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and across the globe.

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You can find posts for previous months in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words below.

Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking

This post was written by Carole Zangari