November 25, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Hope you had a wonderful week, AAC friends. Here are some posts you may want to browse. Monday – 5 Kinds of Pre-stored Messages That Put the AAC Learner in Control Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Alphabet Books and AAC Implementation Thursday – Gratitude and Thanksgiving ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Looking for a few other AAC articles to read? We’ve got plenty for you to choose from. It’s PrAACtically Chanukkah! PrAACtical Guessing: 5 Apps for Interactive Inferencing Supporting Children in the Pediatric ICU 5+ Things to Do to Help AAC Learners Communicate About Illness or Injury “What’s Wrong?” AAC Messages for Negative Emotions and Feelings
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: illness, inference, prestored messages, sick, Thanksgiving
November 19, 2018
by Carole Zangari -
Here’s a conundrum. Personal autonomy is an important component of happiness and well-being, yet it may be hard to come by for people who use AAC. How can we give some power back to our AAC learners so that they have more control of their own circumstances? One way is to provide them with the language that enables them to push back on us and/or assert their own influence on situations. Some individuals have the language in their AAC system already but need instruction and support in learning to say the kinds of things that allow them to advocate for themselves. We can also provide AAC learners with prestored messages that help them stick up for themselves, and teach them when and how to use those. Here are some examples to consider. Take a look and see if there are any that may help your AAC learners achieve more personal... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: control, prestored messages, self-advocacy, self-determination
December 26, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
A great many AAC learners would love to be more actively involved in social conversations but may not have the skills to carry on a conversation. For some individuals, the use of pre-stored messages designed to get their partners talking is a great way take the pressure off and allow the AAC learner to be more actively involved in the conversation. Partner-focused questions serve to get information, opinions, or feedback. By creating these and storing them as whole questions, the AAC learner has a relatively quick and easy means to drive the direction of the conversation. Here are some examples: How were your holidays? What did you get for Christmas/Hanukkah? What do you think? Where did you go over break? How’s your family? What’s going on with you? In general, people love talking about themselves and questions like these are a great way to get the ball rolling or keeping... [Read More...]
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conversation, holiday, language therapy, prestored messages
August 3, 2016
by Carole Zangari -
In the past few years, we’ve written a lot about the value of AAC systems that are rich in single core vocabulary words. Our position has always been, however, that many users of AAC will also benefit from fringe vocabulary words and selected prestored messages. You can read more about that here. To be sure, pre-stored messages, including phrases, sentences, and full questions, have their drawbacks. The main downside relates to the lack of flexibility they offer. Once programmed into a device, the communicator has to use them just the way they are. If he/she wants to say a variation of that message, they are out of luck. In the context of a robust system, however, this isn’t as problematic as it sounds. Individuals who have been provided with robust AAC systems can go to their single word vocabulary to be more precise if the pre-stored message doesn’t capture exactly... [Read More...]
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: prestored messages, therapy