Tag Archive: engagement
June 3, 2020
by Carole Zangari -
Engaging with the activity at hand is an important piece of the learning plan, but it’s not something that comes easily to all AAC learners. In today’s featured video, OT Karen Kangas helps us understand some of the factors that help learners with complex bodies engage and focus in instructional activities. Many thanks to Karen and the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) for making this valuable information accessible. Accessing AAC: Competence Through the Lens of Activity and Engagement Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYrdA8H7yL8&list=PLCkBP2csbOsstD9Wga4bgj-ZK0-zcRLkr&index=10&t=0s You can learn more from Karen here.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: access, attention, engagement
October 2, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
If there’s a better topic for a video to usher in AAC Awareness Month 2019, I couldn’t find it. Enjoy heartfelt session by AAC SLP/AT Specialist and PrAACtical AAC friend, Lauren Enders. You can access the handout for this presentation here. Many thanks to Lauren and to CoughDrop for making this available as part of the AAC in the Cloud Conference archives.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: AAC in the Cloud, connection, engagement, Lauren Enders
August 7, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
How can we help AAC users who aren’t crazy about books to engage and enjoy shared reading? AAC SLP Chana Feinstein has lots of wisdom and prAACtical ideas to share, courtesy of AAC in the Cloud & the wonderful team at CoughDrop. You can download Chana’s handout here. Want to learn more from Chana? Check out her previous presentation on engaging young learners here.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: Chana Feinstein, engagement, shared reading
January 10, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Today we’re digging through the archives and revisiting some posts on activities that your AAC learners may find engaging. Enjoy! Teaming Up to Build Communication with a Treat Cart: Part 1, Part 2 AACtual Therapy: Use Your Best Spud to Teach Vocabulary With Tanna Neufeld PrAACtical Supports for AAC Learners: AT Recipes for Success – Sensorimotor Activities AAC Intervention: 5 Activities with PrAACtical Potential Vocabulary Activities: 5 Sites for Learning with Avatars PrAACtical Teaching in the Autism Classroom: Instructional Activities for Core Vocabulary Why We Love AAC Language Experience Activities
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: activities, engagement, therapy
February 14, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
We’re making progress in teaching our little AAC learners. We know the pedagogy and evidence-based strategies. But we still have to figure out how to plan engaging instructional sessions with specific activities and materials. While we like to get kids moving and interacting with toys and other playthings, sometimes we also include play and interaction using educational and recreational apps. But which ones? In today’s featured video, SLP Betsy Furler shares some of her favorites. This video was part of the 2017 AAC in the Cloud Conference and we are grateful to them for making it available. If you liked this and other videos from AAC in the Cloud, you may want to participate in the 2018 AAC in the Cloud Conference this June. Stay tuned for details!
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: AAC activities, activities, Apps, engagement
August 5, 2015
by Carole Zangari -
No matter what we are teaching, we won’t get very far unless we can help the learner engage. TASN addresses that very topic in today’s video. You can get the handout for this presentation here. Direct Link to Video: http://connect.enetcolorado.org/p8c8ijffpdl/
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: ASD, engagement, TASN
September 29, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
We’ve been musing about engagement this month. Here are some final lessons we’ve learned along the way. “If you don’t believe in me, you won’t be a successful interventionist.” “Put yourself in my shoes once in a while. Be aware of how much focus and effort it takes for me to cope with sensory input, breathe, swallow, and move so that you can plan activities at an appropriate level of difficulty.” “Set a top priority for the lesson, and let me focus on that. It’s hard to sustain interest and motivation when you make things challenging on ALL fronts: cognitive, linguistic, motoric. Pick one area in which to challenge me and let’s dive in!” “Make it worth my while to work hard. We all look for rewards and compensations that are proportionate to the effort expended. I’m no different than you in that respect.” “Use my areas of interest when you... [Read More...]
Filed under: Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: engagement
September 22, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
We can’t complete our thoughts on engaging AAC learners without a bit of conversation around the topic of priorities. Here’s the main idea: Go into each activity having a clear priority for what you want to achieve. Everything else become negotiable. As SLPs, sometimes we want it all. We want therapy activities where the AAC learner initiates communications, uses new vocabulary, creates novel sentences, experiments with new grammatical forms, and kicks some morphological butt. We.want.it.all. After a few decades of being an AAC practitioner, I think I’m finally learning that trying to have it all isn’t always the best option. It isn’t about what I want, it’s about what my client needs. Sigh. In this approach, we look at the lesson or activity and create our “Must Have List.’ For Mayra, a kindergartner just learning to use symbols for the first time, our lessons ‘must’ be engaging, have high pay-off... [Read More...]
Filed under: Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: engagement, priorities
September 15, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
This month, we’re thinking about what it takes to create therapy sessions that engage our AAC learners. A big piece of that is challenging learners at an appropriate level. It’s a simple concept, but can be tricky to translate for an individual learner and task. As much as we try to, it’s hard to really get a feel for what our clients are experiencing. Our bodies work well, for the most part, so we don’t automatically account for differences in sensory processing, motor control, executive functioning, cognition, or memory. We try. We really do. But I’m not sure we do it as well as we hope to do. Revisiting these concepts as an intellectual exercise isn’t going to fix that, but for me (and maybe some of you), it can serve as a helpful reminder. Awareness Ours is an empathetic profession. Still, we don’t always truly understand what our clients... [Read More...]
Filed under: Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: awareness, balance, effort, engagement
September 8, 2014
by Carole Zangari -
Summer is over in our part of the world and that means we get the opportunity to work with a whole new crop of students and clients. There is so much for beginning clinicians to know about providing AAC services that it is intimidating at best and overwhelming in most cases. In previous posts we’ve written about expectations, goal-setting, intervention strategies, therapy activities, reinforcement, feedback, and the like. This month, we’ll focus on a construct that permeates everything: engagement We all know what it looks and feels like when a client is engaged, but how do we make that happen? Here are some thoughts. 1. Start by presuming that your client is a learner on his/her way to developing competence. Good intervention, consistent language models, the right tools, and plenty of practice will move them along the journey toward improved communication. It’s important that, as clinicians, we truly believe that.... [Read More...]
Filed under: Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: engagement, intervention, presume competence