Tag Archive: collaboration
November 6, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
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
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: AAC partner training, classroom, collaboration, school
September 23, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
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...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC partner training, AAC teams, collaboration
May 13, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
We couldn’t be more excited that the world’s AAC experts will be coming together in Mexico next summer for the ISAAC 2020 Conference. In recognition of this wonderful event, we’re excited to embark on a new project here at PrAACtical AAC. We hope that you will support this initiative and help us get this new project off the ground. PrAACtical AAC en Español is our effort at supporting the Spanish-speaking community and we are thrilled that this will be headed up by AAC specialist and veteran SLP, Deanna Wagner. Many of you are familiar with Deanna through her work in Arizona, her presentations around the world, her articles on the wonderful blog AAC Girls, and her guest posts on these pages (like her AACtual Therapy posts here and here, and videos such as this one). Over the next few months, she will be coordinating efforts to build a collection of Spanish-language... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: collaboration, crowdsource, Spanish
August 16, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
It’s another Throwback Thursday and we’re revisiting some posts with shareable tips and resources. Let’s get our AAC teams moving in the same direction! Five Places for Shared AAC Materials Five AAC and Related Resources to Explore AAC Teamwork: Encouraging Colleagues #1 (downloadable) AAC Teamwork: Encouraging Colleagues #2 (downloadable) AAC Teamwork: Encouraging Colleagues #3 (downloadable) AAC: More Teaching, Less Testing (downloadable)
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: collaboration, downloads, resources, teamwork
July 12, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Parents and professionals have so much to teach each other. In this video, we get to peek into a session where collaboration and sharing work to the benefit of the AAC learner. It takes time for skill-building and becoming consistent at using supportive strategies, like aided language input, expansions, and graduated prompting. Whether we are parents or professionals, the learning process takes time. We have to give ourselves permission to move from knowing about AAC facilitation strategies, through using them periodically, to using them consistently. It takes time and lots of practice. Clips from this session remind us that we don’t have to be perfect. We just have to be open to change, willing to try new ways of interacting, and ready to commit to growing our AAC support skills over time. When we do that, kids are the real winners. Thanks to the Louisiana AT Initiative for making this... [Read More...]
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: collaboration, Language facilitation strategies, parent
August 22, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
At the ISAAC 2016 conference in Toronto, I had the opportunity to talk about using technology to share information with families, colleagues, and pre-professionals. LiveBinders, is one of the tools that were discussed both in the pre-conference session with Chris Bugaj and in my seminar on pre-service AAC education. LiveBinders are digital notebooks that make it easy to collect, curate, and share information. We’ve been writing about this tool for the past four years, but there is new material being created all the time. Here are some AAC-related LiveBinders that I’ve been exploring. AAC by Jill Beall/Region 7 ABCs of AAC (Preschool AAC) by D. McLauchlin Literacy and AAC/Balanced Literacy by Deanna Wagner TAAT 2015 by Janice Reese Visuals for ASD by Penelope Arp For more information on LiveBinders and features that you may not know about, check out their tutorials and blog. Do you make or use LiveBinders? We’d... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: collaboration, digital technology
July 20, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
What’s better than a bunch of bright, dedicated professionals who love improving the state of AAC? How about a group that facilitates the collegial sharing of this kind of information?! In today’s post, Dr. Joe Reddington discusses his efforts to promote open-source AAC solutions. You can read about an earlier project, CommuniKate, here. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: AAC Wins the Inclusive Technology Prize A few months ago, the nonprofit I run was given £50,000 to make open licensed resources (both materials and software) a key part of the AAC world. Figure 1: Kate McCallum and Dr Joe Reddington, winners of the Inclusive Technology Prize There are lots of definitions of open-licencing that make it sound more than what it is. Open-licencing is nothing more or less than letting people share. One of the reasons we really like PrAACtical AAC is that they release their work under Creative Commons, letting people make use of... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: collaboration, emerging technology, open source
November 24, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
When SLPs and teachers work together for the benefit of students with little or no functional speech, the results can be magical. Today, we travel to Wisconsin to visit with SLP Dana Brown and Special Educator Sara Olsen who work together at the elementary school level. In this post, Dana and Sara tell us about their experiences using PODD in a classroom of students with intellectual disability. You can learn more about their work on YouTube (Watch Your Language) where they post Word of the Week videos and snippets of AAC use in different clasroom activities. Regular readers know that we’ve posted a few articles and videos on PODD. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We write as a team of special educators, a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and an Intellectual Disabilities teacher, and one thing that we’ve learned working closely together is that AAC is difficult and ongoing. In this post, we are excited to share... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: classroom, collaboration, Dana Brown, PODD, PODD book, Sara Olsen, schools
November 18, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
Several of you have reached out to express appreciation for the videos by Dr. Barry Prizant that were shared in recent months. In this one, he discusses effective strategies for building strong collaborative relationships with families. Thanks to Presence Learning for making this available.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: ASD, collaboration, Dr. Barry Prizant, families
September 10, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
AAC is best played as a team sport. We’ve written about doing this with AAC inservice training, using AT throughout the school day, building classroom conversations, and other tools for using AAC in the classroom. No matter how you view it, AAC interventionists have to support one another. In this post, we continue our series of sharing printables that can be used to provide a little encouragement and recognition of our colleagues who are out there every day trying to do their best for AAC learners. You can download the bookmarks here, print and laminate them back-to-back, and share with with families, teachers, therapists, paraprofessionals, and others who are with you on this journey. And, if you missed the earlier printables, you can get those here and here.
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: collaboration, resources, teamwork