Tag Archive: AAC partner training

Video of the Week: Helping Others Model AAC

January 29, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Helping Others Model AAC

How can we help communication partners use aided language input to support AAC users? In today’s featured video, SLP Gretchen Storm discusses strategies that can be used in partner training? Many thanks to Gretchen for this presentation and Saltillo for hosting it so that we can all benefit.   Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBQASNVSfGc&feature=youtu.be

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Video of the Week: Tips for Supporting Students Who Use AAC in School

November 6, 2019 by - 2 Comments

Video of the Week: Tips for Supporting Students Who Use AAC in School

If you’re in the position of supporting students with AAC needs in school, you know that it takes a lot of planning and coordination to do this well. In today’s video, we learn from SLP Brie Norton who provides district-level support to students with AAC needs and their educational teams. Hosted by PRC Saltillo, this recorded webinar covers prAACtical tips for collaboration, therapy, generalization, and progress monitoring. Many thanks to Brie and to PRC Saltillo for this helpful webinar.  You can obtain the handouts for this session here. Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0fRSI7gx6s

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PrAACtical Research: Effects of Parent Instruction on SGD Use

October 24, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Decorative image with text: PrAACtical Research: Effects of Parent Instruction on SGD Use

As we all know, parents of kids with complex communication needs play a critical role in their children’s learning of communication, language, and AAC. Today, our guest authors describe an important study that can help us support these families with effective training, practice, and coaching. Jill Senner, Kathy Post, and Matthew Baud describe the study they did on AAC parent training and explain the outcomes. Enjoy! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: In 2018, we wrote about the importance of evidence-based practice in ensuring a high standard of care for our clients and patients. Reading AAC-related journal articles is a great way to both continue developing clinical expertise and stay informed about best research evidence.  It can be quite time consuming for busy professionals to regularly read journal articles and keep up with the AAC literature so we’ve been invited back to share a summary of our latest publication with PrAACtical AAC readers. The article... [Read More...]

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How I Do It: Teaching the AAC Helpers

September 23, 2019 by - 1 Comment

Decorative image reading How I Do It: Teaching the AAC Helpers

We welcome Amanda Samperi back to these pages with more ideas for prAACtical ways to address AAC implementation challenges. As an SLP, Amanda has served individuals with complex communication needs in school, home, and medical settings.  She has presented on AAC-related topics st ASHA, an IEE Electrical Safety Workshop, and at the AAC in the Cloud Conference. Amanda hopes to continue sharing her knowledge and experiences about AAC through her blog, AAC is where it’s AT. Today, she shares some ideas for helping staff members better support AAC learners. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: How I Do It: Teaching the Helpers Mr. Rogers had it right – you will always find people helping. Helpers make our world go round. We rely on them in times of tragedy, celebrate with them in times of joy, and lean on them in times of need. Helpers play a large role in both the home and school lives... [Read More...]

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How We Do It: The Talk Flock – Taking Care of Caregivers

July 1, 2019 by - 2 Comments

How We Do It: The Talk Flock - Taking Care of Caregivers

How can we better support parents and caregivers of children with AAC needs? Meredith Laverdure and Jaime Lawson, who are SLPs and former co-workers, wanted to do more for the families they served. Meredith is currently a doctoral student at Old Dominion University.  Her clinical and research interests include building communicative competence for children with complex communication needs with group interventions, as well as family- and community-level support.  Jaime has predominately worked with pediatric clients, focusing on AAC/AT evaluations and intervention. Her clinical and research interests include enhancing communicative opportunities for children across settings and in various social settings, group intervention, family-centered therapy, and communication partner training. In this post, Meredith and Jaime share their experiences in developing The Talk Flock, a parent education and support group. Enjoy! The Talk Flock: Taking Care of Caregivers As speech-language pathologists in the outpatient pediatric setting with a busy AAC/AT clinic, we tried to... [Read More...]

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How I do it: Using Videos & Instructional Feedback to Support Communication Partners

April 11, 2019 by - 1 Comment

How I do it: Using Videos & Instructional Feedback to Support Communication Partners

As AAC interventionists well know, we can improve learning outcomes by getting key communication partners to use specific strategies to support AAC learning. How can we do that effectively and efficiently? Today, we hear from Laura Hayes, an AAC Facilitator for Special School District of St. Louis County, Missouri. Using her 10+ years of AAC experience, Laura provides support to staff and students across 4 school districts. She has presented locally and at state, national, and international conferences, and has been involved in both inpatient pediatric and educational AAC research.  Laura loves providing staff training, implementation resources and guided direction to help students using AAC succeed. In today’s guest post, she shares her experiences and tips for supporting communication partners. (Don’t forget to download the resources she is sharing before you go.) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: How I do it: Using Videos and Instructional Feedback to Support Communication Partners Prior to the Training... [Read More...]

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Building AAC Facilitation Skills with Tabi Jones-Wohleber: MASTER PAL Training, Module 10 (Appropriate Prompting)

October 25, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

Building AAC Facilitation Skills with Tabi Jones-Wohleber: MASTER PAL Training, Module 10 (Appropriate Prompting)

The right types of prompts delivered at the right time in the right amount can be enormously powerful in supporting AAC learners. On the other hand, the wrong type of prompt or prompts that offer too much or too little help can impede learning, self-confidence, and cause other problems as well. In today’s continuation of the Model as a MASTER PAL Training Series, Tabi Jones-Wohleber addresses issues related to prompting. As with the other modules, she provides slides, handouts, video links, discussion points and more. This module should take about 30-40 minutes to present. Looking for the earlier modules in the MASTER PAL Series? Check them out here. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Model as a MASTER PAL Module 10: Appropriate Prompting Facilitator Guidelines What it comes to prompting, it’s important to get it right! Inappropriate prompting can result in decreased quality interactions characterized by prompt dependence, passive engagement, and of course poor use of... [Read More...]

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How We Do It: AAC Training for Educational Assistants

October 22, 2018 by - 3 Comments

How We Do It: AAC Training for Educational Assistants

We’ve been focusing on training communication partners recently and today we’re focusing specifically on paraprofessionals/educational assistants. Our guest post is authored by SLPs Corinna Duffitt, M.Sc., RSLP  (practicing for 21 years, 14 years in AAC) and Jennifer Wiegert, M.A., CCC-RSLP (practicing for 21 years, focusing on AAC for the past 6  years).  They are colleagues on an AAC team with 4 other SLPs in a large school district in Surrey, BC, Canada.   Their school district consists of 101 elementary schools and 20 secondary schools.   Corinna and Jennifer are both passionate about giving children a voice and letting that voice uncovers their potential. They recently joined their private practice endeavours, outside of their public school positions, to form Chickadee AAC Communication Services. You can find them on Instagram (@chickadeeaacslps or #chickadeeaac), check in on their website, and/or follow them on Facebook. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: AAC Training for Educational Assistants Some of the challenges we encountered... [Read More...]

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Building AAC Facilitation Skills with Tabi Jones-Wohleber: MASTER PAL Training, Module 9 (Presume Potential)

October 18, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

Building AAC Facilitation Skills with Tabi Jones-Wohleber: MASTER PAL Training, Module 9

We continue our AAC partner training series, authored by SLP Tabi Jones-Wohleber, with a 60-minute session on presuming potential. In addition to her work with the AT Team for Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland, Tabi serves young children and their families at West Virginia Birth to Three programs. You can see the first 8 modules here.     ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Model as a MASTER PAL Module 9: Presume Potential Presuming potential is a belief system that influences our words and actions both consciously and unconsciously. As such it cannot be overstated that our words and actions shape the nature and trajectory of opportunities for learning, communicating and engaging for those with whom we interact who use AAC.  This module showcases a parent perspective, and utilizes many video examples to invite participants into an honest and reflective conversation on the need to shed assumptions about where an individual’s learning will “max out”. It... [Read More...]

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Building AAC Facilitation Skills with Tabi Jones-Wohleber: MASTER PAL Training, Module 8

October 11, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

Building AAC Facilitation Skills with Tabi Jones-Wohleber: MASTER PAL Training, Module 8

Our AAC Training Series continues today and we remain extremely appreciative that West Virginia based SLP Tabi Jones-Wohleber allows us to share these presentation materials. Today’s training materials center on a topic that will help AAC interventionists strengthen their relationships with AAC learners and provide important language learning opportunities at the same time. This module, Response NOT Required, is all about interactions that engage our learners and invite them into the conversation. The instructional time for Module 8 is about 20 minutes so this can feasibly be shared in a formal or informal sharing session before or after the school day.   ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Model as a MASTER PAL Module 8: Response NOT Required Facilitator Guidelines When I talk about modeling without expectation of a response, I often get quizzical sideways glances.  It is not an intuitive way of interacting, especially in an educational environment where responding is inherent in classroom... [Read More...]

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