Tag Archive: language development
February 2, 2020
by Carole Zangari -
Good morning, AAC friends! It was a busy week of AAC at ATIA 2020. Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – PrAACtically February: More AAC Resources for a Year of Core Words Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Helping Others Model AAC Thursday – Throwback Thursday: AAC with Beginning Communicators :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Here are a few more posts to sample before you go. PrAACtical Questions with Vicki Clarke: What’s the Role of Core Vocabulary? AAC Goes to High School: Community-based Instruction Communication Boards: Colorful Considerations Language Development Across the School Day
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: language development, school
November 17, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
Happy Sunday, AAC friends. Here are some posts you may have missed. Monday – 5 Ways to Build Increased Support for AAC Within an Organization Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Using the AAC Participation Model to Guide Implementation Planning Thursday – How We Do It: A Support Walker Mobility Program for Elementary Students with AAC Needs ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::; Before you leave, sample some of these posts from the archives. “But He Doesn’t Like It!” 5 Things to Try with AAC Learners Who Don’t Like Shared Reading Getting Acquainted with Tarheel Reader AAC on TpT: 5 Free Downloads Reading with AAC Across the Stages of Language Development
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC implementation, language development, reading
January 16, 2019
by Carole Zangari -
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
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: beginning communicator, classroom, intervention strategies, language development
February 19, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Today we are excited to share a wonderful collection of articles that help to expand the theoretical underpinnings and empirical knowledge base in AAC. The Augmentative and Alternative Communication journal is providing free access to six articles that are part of an ongoing international collaboration of researchers and clinicians in 16 nations. You can access articles from this project, entitled “Becoming an Aided Communicator: Aided Language Skills in Children aged 5–15 years: A Multi-site and Cross-cultural Investigation,” below. Kudos to the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) and the journal co-editors (Drs. Martine Smith and Bronwyn Hemsley) and Dr. von Tetzchner for making this special issue so widely available. We hope you enjoy reading Aided Language Processes, Development, and Use: An International Perspective.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: aided communication, language development, research, theory
January 31, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
As we all know, our AAC intervention must be differentiated to meet the needs of individual learners. In today’s post, we share a number of videos by the wonderful team at Communicare in Massachusetts. In these videos, they demonstrate how to read the same book and adjust the goals, aided language input, comments, and questions for AAC learners at 6 different stages of language development. Many thanks to this wonderful team for making these videos and sharing them publicly. You can learn more from Nerissa Hall and Hillary Jellison here.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: book reading, language development, video
January 18, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
For several years, those who specialize in supporting AAC learners have stressed the need to develop AAC systems and programming that go beyond the communicative function of requesting in order to target the ability to protest, reject, comment, etc. This has been an important trend that will empower users of AAC to express themselves in much fuller ways. What other things should we be targeting in order to help our clients and students become more linguistically competent? Here are some ideas for goal areas to consider. Temporal Markers: While no one can overstate the importance of talking about our current needs, interests, observations, and preferences, we have to be careful not to get stuck in the moment. It is also important for our AAC learners to develop the language skills to be able to talk about things that already happened or that will/might be happening. Why? Among other things, this... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: goal setting, goals, language development, language goals, language intervention
August 31, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Are you planning language therapy or vocabulary instruction with AAC learners? For more than three decades, families, professionals, and people with complex communication needs have benefited from the insights and support of master clinician Gail Van Tatenhove. Among other things, Gail’s work has shaped the design of AAC technology and the practice of AAC in clinical and educational settings around the world. In today’s post, we share two of Gail’s resources on language development and academic vocabulary. Enjoy! Normal Language Acquisition & Children Using AAC Systems Academic Vocabulary
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: academic vocabulary, language development, Tier 2 words
May 31, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
Typically developing children acquire language not through direct instruction but by immersion in an environment where the language of the community is modeled all day long. When they eat and when they play, in care routines at home and in exchanges in the community, children are continually hearing the language they are learning to produce. When parents of Deaf or hard of hearing babies learn of their children’s disability, many clamor to learn sign language and use it as they bathe, feed, and play with their children. These parents may not be perfect sign language models, but they understand that their efforts to learn and use sign language will play a critical role in helping their children learn to communicate effectively. Thus, they strive to sign all day long as they talk to their kids. The pervasive, contextually-driven exposure to language is the foundation on which children build skills in... [Read More...]
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: aided language input, language development, modeling, play
January 23, 2017
by Carole Zangari -
The good news is this: A growing number of people with complex communication needs are getting access to AAC. Educators whose students had AAC only at circle and snack time are now using it more consistently with their students throughout the day and teaching lessons specifically designed to build skills with AAC systems. SLPs who had eschewed AAC or who had focused their AAC efforts on choicemaking, requesting, and labeling are now embracing their role as language specialists and teaching a fuller array of semantic, morphological, and syntactic skills to AAC learners. AT specialists who had been doling out the same few SGDs and AAC apps are now digging deeper and using established practices for AT selection in supporting minimally verbal and nonverbal students. Behaviorists who had previously focused primarily on receptive identification and verbal imitation are supporting the expressive needs of their clients in new ways. Families who had little... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: intervention, language development, myth
May 30, 2013
by Carole Zangari -
We couldn’t be more excited to have a return visit from Marlene Cummings, a wonderful SLP who is currently serving as an AAC Consultant to the AAC Team at Oakland Schools. In her first post, Marlene talked about strategies for cultivating the right mindset for AAC teaching. In this post, Marlene continues sharing elements of her Framework for Success in discussing the Knowledge Toolbox, developed with the Oakland Schools AAC Team. 5 Things in Your “Knowledge Toolbox” What is already in my “knowledge toolbox” of communication, language and learning? Yes, you do have a full toolbox. You just don’t realize it. And of course there are always new and exciting things to add. You already know this stuff!! REMEMBER??? It is important to step back and think broadly about communication and what it really does. Sometimes we get caught in the details of our work and can’t see the forest through the... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AAC team, classroom, communication opportunities, communicative competence, communicative function, communicative intent, education, How I Do It, language development, Marlene Cummings, schools