Tag Archive: shared reading

TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘The Skin You Live In’!

March 15, 2021 by - 1 Comment

TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘The Skin You Live In’!

We are back with lots of great core vocabulary resources in another edition in the TELL ME About It series. In today’s post, AAC SLPs Maggie Judson and Jeanna Antrim share ideas for language learning with the book ‘The Skin You Live In.’ Maggie and Jeanna are speech-language pathologists who work in the Assistive Technology Department for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative (BASSC) in southern Illinois. They are AT/AAC facilitators and provide evaluations, direct therapy, consultations, and trainings with school teams. Check out the video read-alouds using 3 different AAC apps, and their ideas for classroom activities, e-learning, supporting AAC learning at home, and more. Also, don’t miss their tips for dealing with communication breakdowns. To read more about how they prepare for a TELL ME week and see resources that are based on other books take a look at their previous posts in the TELL ME About It... [Read More...]

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TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘It’s Okay to Be Different!’

December 7, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with 'It's Okay to Be Different!'

If you’re in search of ways to support preschool teachers who are implementing TELL ME or another core vocabulary program with their young students, this post has some great information and downloadable resources for you.  AAC SLPs Jeanna Antrim and Maggie Judson are back with another guest post the TELL ME About It series. Maggie and Jeanna are speech-language pathologists who work in the Assistive Technology Department for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative (BASSC) in southern Illinois. They are AT/AAC facilitators and provide evaluations, direct therapy, consultations, and trainings with school teams. TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘It’s Okay to Be Different!’ TELL ME About The Book The fourth book in this new series is “It’s Okay To Be Different” by Todd Parr. A perfect book for a preschool classroom, with its repeated phrases, simple text, and engaging illustrations. And oh, did we mention it’s full of... [Read More...]

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AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #29: July 2020

July 19, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #29: July 2020

Happy Sunday, AAC friends! Here are some posts that might interest you. Monday – TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘Max’s Breakfast’ Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: “I Have an AAC Device. Now What?” Thursday – AAC Implementation from a ‘Communication World’ Perspective :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We’ve had AAC and book reading on our minds this week. It seemed like a good time to share some book-related posts from the archives. 5 Ways to Use Books to Build Interaction with AAC Learners Alphabet Books and AAC Implementation Adapting Books with Visual Scenes Make It PrAACtical: Display Stand for Visual Supports or Books Using Adapted Books with AAC Learners: 3 Important Questions to Ask

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Site of the Month: Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

June 29, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

Site of the Month: Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

Looking for comprehensive information on effective literacy instruction and research-based strategies to support students with significant cognitive disabilities and complex communication needs? Today, we highlight the Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities website, a resource developed by the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium (ERLC) that can be used in planning a new literacy program or enhancing one already in existence.  The site is broken down into 6 main areas. Getting Started provides a framework for this instruction and offers guidance for determining whether instruction for individual learners should focus on emergent or conventional literacy.  The Access to Communication section offers a number of resources to support access to and early development of skills in the areas of linguistic, social, operational, and strategic competence.  Access to appropriate reading material and to effective writing supports both contain important foundational information and practical resource suggestions. More in-depth information is also provided for emergent literacy... [Read More...]

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TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with ‘If You’re Angry & You Know It’

June 8, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with 'If You're Angry & You Know It'

Welcome to a new edition of TELL ME ABout It, a series looking at ways to use children’s trade books to build AAC core vocabulary and literacy skills. Maggie Judson and Jeanna Antrim are back with more great ideas for AAC intervention, this time focusing on the book, ‘If You’re Angry and You Know It.’ Maggie and Jeanna are speech-language pathologists who work in the Assistive Technology Department for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative (BASSC) in central Illinois. They are AT/AAC facilitators and provide evaluations, direct therapy, consultations, and trainings. You can see their previous posts in the TELL ME About It series below. The Lunch Box Surprise Come Out and Play, Little Mouse No, David Go Away Big Green Monster What Do You Like? Here Are My Hands From Head to Toe I Went Walking Brown Bear, Brown Bear TELL ME AAC Literacy Kits Don’t miss their videos... [Read More...]

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PrAACtical Resources: Tar Heel Shared Reader

February 27, 2020 by - Leave your thoughts

PrAACtical Resources: Tar Heel Shared Reader

If reading is a priority in your AAC work, you’ll want to explore today’s featured resource, the website Tar Heel Shared Reader. Developed by a team at the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this variation of the popular Tar Heel Reader website provides PCS  symbol support for core words that can be used in discussing each book. You can learn more about Tar Heel Reader here. Their newest site focuses on interactive book reading and contains all of the same wonderful features as the original version plus several additional options. For example, you can specify which core words you are targeting while reading the book so that those appear in a strip below each page. That enables us to use those in modeling the symbols for those words as we talk and read the story. Sample phrases and sentences to... [Read More...]

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TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with Brown Bear, Brown Bear

September 16, 2019 by - 4 Comments

Decorative image reading AAC Learning with Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Welcome back to another installment of TELL ME About it, guest authored by Jeanna Antrim and Maggie Judson. Maggie and Jeanna are speech-language pathologists who work in the Assistive Technology Department for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative (BASSC) in southern Illinois. They are AT/AAC facilitators and provide evaluations, direct therapy, consultations, and trainings with school teams. In this series, they discuss how they support preschool teachers who are implementing the TELL ME program with their young students. Today, they walk us through the ways that they facilitate AAC use while focusing on a beloved book by Eric Carle.   TELL ME About It: AAC Learning with Brown Bear, Brown Bear TELL ME About Reading:  The first book in the TELL ME program (Teaching Early Language and Literacy through Multimodal Expression) is the warm-up book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”.  A wonderful classic that may already be part of your classroom... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Making Shared Book Reading Awesome for AAC Users Who Don’t Like Books 

August 7, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Making Shared Book Reading Awesome for AAC Users Who Don’t Like Books 

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.

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How I Do It: Literacy, Language, and AAC with Jeanna Antrim

February 21, 2019 by - 6 Comments

How I Do It: Language, Literacy, & AAC with Jeanna Antrim

We have deep respect for clinicians and educators who are willing to share their approach to developing strong AAC instructional sessions. Today, we are excited to welcome SLP Jeanna Antrim to these pages. Jeanna has been an SLP for the past 7 years practicing at special education cooperatives in southern Illinois. She works both with students in a self-contained behavior school and as an AAC facilitator conducting AAC evaluations, providing direct therapy, and consulting with school teams. In this post, she shares her approach to developing AAC sessions using shared reading. (Don’t miss her book packet and handouts.) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: How I Do It: Literacy, Language, and AAC After graduating, it took me a few years of trial and error before I figured out (and don’t get me wrong I’m still figuring out) my niche. I absolutely love books and love how I can target any language and communication concept within a... [Read More...]

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Video of the Week: Growing Language with AAC Modeling

February 20, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

Video of the Week: Growing Language with AAC Modeling

How can we use modeling to help AAC learners move toward linguistic competence? In today’s featured video, Dr. Melissa Malani has lots of ideas for how to do this in the context of shared book reading. Many thanks to Melissa and the wonderful team at Saltillo for creating this presentation and making it widely available. Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehvAwtDX-lM

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