May 31, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Magic Moments is an occasional series that discusses prAACtical ways of using favorite toys, games, apps, and selected websites for language and literacy learning. Our last Magic Moments post featured Toca Store, an app for children, so this time we raised our sights to address an older demographic. There are fewer age-appropriate, interesting materials designed especially for the AAC and learning needs of this age group so we are always on the hunt for creative ideas. Since we’re sharing digital curation tools as part of our May Strategy of the Month, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to talk about ways to use Qwiki with clients who use AAC. and websites for communication learning. – Qwiki is an aggregation tool that combines video and web interactivity into a brief multimedia presentation. In their reference site, Qwiki allows you to enter a search term and get an interesting overview of that topic with images,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: digital curation, implementation ideas, intervention, Magic Moments
April 7, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
April is springtime where we live and spring is a time of beginnings. It’s fitting, then, that our AAC strategy of the month speaks to the very beginning of AAC intervention. Learning how to create focused opportunities to teach or practice an AAC skill is a pivotal skill for SLPs. The concept is a simple one: create an environment in which the learner WANTS or NEEDS to display the target skill. – Communication opportunities are related to the concept of communicative temptations. As SLP blogger Becca Jarzynski of Child Talk puts it “Communication temptations are pretty much just what they sound like: we set up the environment to tempt children to communicate with us.” Stop by and read her excellent post here . While Becca focuses on their use with young children, the approach can be used with people of any age. – Tempting people to communicate is all about... [Read More...]
Filed under: Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: implementation ideas, intervention
February 18, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Families and professionals often share a common frustration when a new SGD, communication aid, or AAC app is introduced: Getting people to use it. Whether we’re fighting with insurance companies or navigating the educational maze, our attention is often consumed by getting access to the device. Then, oh happy day, it arrives. Round 1 is over. We won! We get it set up (no small feat). We start teaching the communicator to use it and everyone shares the excitement of this new tool. For awhile, anyway. – And then, reality sets in. – We realize that learning to communicate through this tool and building language skills with it is a p-r-o-c-e-s-s. There’s an arc to that process. It slowly sinks in that this new tool is necessary but not sufficient for real communication and language learning to occur. Though we knew that having the AAC device or app wasn’t going... [Read More...]
Filed under: Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: collaboration, implementation ideas, intervention
February 3, 2012
by Robin Parker -
How we integrated AAC strategies into a community event… The name of our website is PrAACtical AAC. We continue to look for ways to make AAC strategies fit praAACtically into ALL activities. We are extremely proud to be part of the Dan Marino Foundation WalkAbout Autism, which is a large South Florida Community Event. The Walkabout helps raise money services for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families. It also promotes a sense of community collaboration and awareness about autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. We are including this information about the WalkAbout not as a plea for money (although read about the WalkAbout and donate if you are so inclined), but instead to tell you how we are incorporating AAC into community events. This past weekend was the 2nd WalkAbout Autism. It was a truly amazing event and day! There was great music and bounce houses,... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: autism spectrum disorder, community, dan marino foundation, implementation ideas, Learning, personal participation, song, south florida community, WalkAbout