Tag Archive: empower

5 Ways to Build Awareness of the Power of Communication

February 19, 2014 by - 1 Comment

5 Ways to Build Awareness of the Power of Communication

Awhile back I helped a graduate student clinician lead a session with some children who do not yet have AAC systems in place. Communicating with pictures is hard for them and doesn’t yet make sense. They haven’t connected the dots to see that when they use these picture-based materials, they can influence the environment in a way that makes their lives more interesting and fun.   Our first step was to help them begin to understand that they could control aspects of their environment. Here are some things we did to help the AAC learners feel the power of communication. 1. Made communication easy: Talking switches and sequential communicators are great ways for learners to get a big payoff with little effort. In classrooms where there was no functioning technology, we used free apps for mobile devices and paper-based communication boards. 2. Made the response big and fun: Think silly,... [Read More...]

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Using Visual Supports for Goal-Setting Conversations

November 17, 2013 by - Leave your thoughts

Using Visual Supports for Goal-Setting Conversations

Empowering people with AAC needs to be actively involved in goal setting is something that most professionals would see as a priority. Where we get sometimes get stuck is on HOW to make that happen. In this week’s featured video, Dr. Joan Murphy demonstrates the use of Talking Mats in goal-setting conversations. You can learn more about that here. Direct link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-fFCtQ5sB

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