Tag Archive: beginning communicator

Video of the Week: Roadmap to a Communication Positive School

February 5, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Roadmap to a Communication Positive School

How can we create educational settings that support the communicative development of children with AAC needs? Today, we turn to Angelman UK for a presentation on this topic by Rosie Clark, Carly Hynes, and Livvy Hepburn. This session was recorded during the Angelman UK Communication and Literacy Conference in 2019. Our thanks to the presenters and to the team at Angelman UK for this wonderful video. Enjoy!  Direct Link to Video – https://vimeo.com/372462297

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Throwback Thursday: AAC with Beginning Communicators

January 30, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

Throwback Thursday: AAC with Beginning Communicators

Do you work with people who are just starting to get the hang of communicating with symbols and using SGDs? Today. we’re revisiting some posts that may have some helpful information on ways to support beginning users of AAC. Recommended Practices for Beginning Communicators  Using Symbols with Beginning Communicators  Getting Started with AAC Helping Beginning Communicators Expand Their Sentences  A PrAACtical Literacy Activity for Beginning Communicators 

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Video of the Week: Starting AAC with Individuals with Angelman Syndrome

December 11, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Starting AAC with Individuals with Angelman Syndrome

Individuals with Angelman Syndrome often derive great benefit from the use of AAC. In today’s featured video, Rosie Clarke and Livvy Hepburn help us understand some of the key concepts in getting started in using AAC supports and systems.  This video was made possible by AngelmanUK (formerly ASSERT). We are grateful to them for making this available. You can see an earlier video on supporting communication in people with Angelman Syndrome. Direct Link to Today’s Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSHWwFDy0lc

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Video of the Week: Getting Started with AAC

April 24, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Getting Started with AAC

Although readers of this site are generally quite familiar with the basics of AAC, most of us encounter families who are new to the AAC journey fairly often. In today’s video, we turn to SLP and AAC mom Dana Nieder who covers this topic from a very prAACtical perspective. Many thanks to Dana and to the Center on Technology and Disability for creating and sharing this archived presentation. This is a good one to enjoy and share with families who are just beginning to use AAC with their child.   You can learn more from Dana at her wonderful blog, Uncommon Sense. Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=CmvJSM3QFJk

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AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #11: March 2019

March 17, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #11: March 2019

It’s been a fun week of AAC. Here’s what we’ve been up to. Monday – 3 Ways to Use Visual Schedules for Language Building Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Parent-Implemented AAC Intervention for Young Children Thursday – Throwback Thursday: AAC & the IEP ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Stick around for a bit more if you can. Here are some posts that may be of interest. Let’s Go Outside! 5 PrAACtical Ideas At the Very Beginning: Working with Pre-Intentional Communicators Sometimes I Feel Sunny AAC Access for Individuals with Significant Motor Limitations Through Partner Assisted Scanning Supporting AAC Learners in Emergent Writing: 5 Helpful Resources

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Beginning Communicators: Learning Through Touch Cues

January 28, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Beginning Communicators: Learning Through Touch Cues

15-year-old Jodi has cerebral palsy and significant intellectual disability, among other things. In the most recent assessment of her motor, cognitive, communication, and self-help skills, scores ranged from 6-15 months. She spends most of her school day in her wheelchair. Jodi’s teacher affixes interesting toys to the lap tray so that she can explore them, but has become discouraged that Jodi mostly bangs them, puts them in her mouth, or tosses them to the floor. Her team struggles to find ways to teach Jodi to communicate more effectively. 10-year-old Nathaniel’s team notes that he shows little awareness of his classmates or teachers throughout the day, though he will smile and laugh when they take his hands and clap with him. As a younger child, he demonstrated more awareness of his surroundings but after his seizure activity spiked, it became more and more difficult to get him to engage. 6-year-old Jarrod... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Language Development Across the School Day

January 16, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Language Development Across the School Day

How can we support the language development of AAC learners throughout the school day? In today’s featured video, Erin Sheldon examines ways in which we can facilitate early concept development, build background knowledge, and support vocabulary learning. Many thanks to Kathy Howery and the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium for making this archived webinar available.   You can learn more from Erin here. Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILegvpt9bw

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Video of the Week: Strategies for Helping Early AAC Users Engage and Interact

September 5, 2018 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Strategies for Helping Early AAC Users Engage and Interact

“He has an AAC device but he doesn’t use it much.” “I have great toys but she doesn’t seem to like any of them.” “How can I build language if he doesn’t want to interact with me?” “The only time she uses her SGD is to ask for things.” Connecting with clients who are beginning to use AAC and helping them use their communication tools is a challenge in some clinical and educational settings. Today, we revisit a session from CoughDrop’s 2nd Annual AAC in the Cloud conference held last spring, to get some prAACtical advice about building engagement and interaction. In our featured video, SLP Chana Feinstein of All Kinds of Voices provides concrete suggestions that will help our beginning communicators want to communicate and use their AAC devices for a variety of purposes. We are grateful to CoughDrop for hosting this wonderful conference and allowing us all to... [Read More...]

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AAC Assessment Corner with Vicki Clarke: Evaluating Skills For Use of Comprehensive AAC Systems, Part 2: Language Representation Elements – Noun Symbol Use for Functional Communication

June 11, 2018 by - 1 Comment

AAC Assessment Corner with Vicki Clarke: Evaluating Skills For Use of Comprehensive AAC Systems, Part 2: Language Representation Elements - Noun Symbol Use for Functional Communication

Vicki Clarke, CEO of Dynamic Therapy Associates and Director of DTA Schools, is back with another wonderful edition of AAC Assessment Corner.  In addition to their clinic, Vicki and her team support school districts in AAC evaluation, equipment procurement, and implementation for individual students in the academic environment.  DTA Schools also supports district-wide AAC implementation through the Classroom Communication Goals Project, training, and supporting all team members in classroom AAC implementation. In today’s post, Vicki shares her thoughts on how we can look at the use of AAC symbols for nouns as part of our evaluations for comprehensive AAC systems. You can view her previous contributions to the AAC Assessment Corner here. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Evaluating Skills For Use of Comprehensive AAC Systems, Part 2: Language Representation Elements – Noun Symbol Use for Functional Communication It was a crazy, busy month full of evaluations, trainings, and report writing.  I’ve spent a lot of time with... [Read More...]

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On the Same Page: Helping Team Members Recognize and Respond to Unconventional Communication Signals

April 30, 2018 by - 3 Comments

On the Same Page: Helping Team Members Recognize and Respond to Unconventional Communication Signals

Joaquin grabs my wrists when he wants me to play. Ariella bangs her fists together when she wants more of something. Brayden paces anxiously when he needs to use the restroom. Do you work learners like these? Beginning communicators often use signals that are unconventional to express their emotional states, wants, needs, and ideas. That can work really well when the people in their lives recognize those signals and respond to the communicator’s intent. But when the signals are subtle or idiosyncratic, team members may miss them or misinterpret them. That’s unfortunate because when we accidentally ignore the beginning communicator’s signal or when we don’t respond in a way that reinforces their use, communication progress stalls out. One way to help get everyone on board in recognizing those unconventional or subtle forms of communication is to create learner-specific ‘dictionaries’ that help those who are not intimately familiar with the individual... [Read More...]

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