August 31, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Are you planning language therapy or vocabulary instruction with AAC learners? For more than three decades, families, professionals, and people with complex communication needs have benefited from the insights and support of master clinician Gail Van Tatenhove. Among other things, Gail’s work has shaped the design of AAC technology and the practice of AAC in clinical and educational settings around the world. In today’s post, we share two of Gail’s resources on language development and academic vocabulary. Enjoy! Normal Language Acquisition & Children Using AAC Systems Academic Vocabulary
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: academic vocabulary, language development, Tier 2 words
July 13, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Teaching AAC learners to expand their vocabularies beyond a basic set of core words is an important goal to target in language development, and a topic that we’ve written a lot about in this space. For the student to be successful, SLPs need to think of vocabulary instruction as an ongoing process that has a clear 3-part structure. Introduction: Word is used in context, defined, and produced by the learner. Students assess their own knowledge of the word. Explicit Instruction: Activities are created to help the student really understand what the word means and how to use it. Students begin using it throughout the session. Continued Practice: We continue to use these words and help the student use the target words in the session. Engaging activities, often with technology, are used to help our learners deepen their understanding of the word. This will be accomplished over multiple sessions. In this... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: academic vocabulary, implementation ideas, intervention, semantic instruction, vocabulary teaching