Throughout the world, teachers, therapists, and parents are busy doing the real work of AAC. Making sure AAC materials are available all day long. Modeling language with SGDs, apps, and communication boards. Let’s take a peek into their classrooms, therapy rooms, and homes. Macomb Intermediate Schools Shared Reading Shared Reading with the Comment-Ask-Respond Strategy Sentences After School Pop-up Pirate
Filed under: Video of the Week
Learning to communicate with AAC can be a long road with plenty of twists and turns. In most cases, AAC learners require support and that may include various forms of prompting. In today’s video, we feature a presentation from the AAC in the Cloud Conference that CoughDrop hosted last month. In this video, SLP Rachael Langley, shares her thoughts on prompting, where we go wrong, and how we can use it to better support AAC learners. Many thanks to CoughDrop and to Rachael Langley for making this presentation available. Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2mtuhVa0WA&index=3&list=PL8oiM_hsU8kYofdlpC4vcYX49yuBZvv9v
Filed under: Video of the Week
Once AAC systems are in place, therapists, teachers, and parents often turn their focus on how to help learners use those to express themselves and to better understand their world. Today, we once again turn to Gail Van Tatenhove, an AAC master clinician, for teaching tips and ideas for resources and materials. This video is part of the Power AAC series from PaTTAN. Many thanks to Gail and PaTTAN for making this available. You can see other posts from the series here.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: implementation ideas, Scaffolding, video, visual supports
What do students with cognitive impairments who use AAC need in order to learn to read and write? Comprehensive literacy instruction, for one thing. In today’s featured videos, we travel to Iowa to peek into some classroom activities where students with cognitive disabilities who use AAC are working on their spelling and decoding skills. Direct Links to Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8IOEICJQc&list=PLocplddh5SSRBGRsR0tOFXIJd5wh6i89k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BUXpKlLISs&list=PLocplddh5SSRBGRsR0tOFXIJd5wh6i89k&index=7 Many thanks to the Iowa Department of Education, teachers, and students for these helpful videos.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Do you know students like these? In therapy sessions, Victor uses single words on his SGD to participate in games and activities, but doesn’t use it much during other daily experiences. Bella uses PECS quite capably at mealtimes but rarely uses it at other times during the day. Karina can use her AAC app to put together short narratives to tell about things that happened recently. Most times, though, she expresses herself with single word utterances. As therapists, teachers, and families who support people who use AAC, we do a lot of hand wringing when there is a discrepancy between what students KNOW HOW to do and what they DO do. We are perplexed and frustrated when these students have everything they need to utilize a particular skill, yet fail to do so. It’s a common concern, but here’s a question for us to ask ourselves: Don’t we do the... [Read More...]
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: aided language input, modeling, reading, video
It is so exciting to see how AAC is being implemented around the world. In this week’s video, we travel to Guatemala to feature the work of Isabel Orellana de Chang. The video is in Spanish, but you can use the closed caption buttons at the bottom of the video to turn on English subtitles. This is a great resource to share with our Spanish-speaking friends. Enjoy!
Filed under: Video of the Week
For people who are learning to use AAC, therapy is important. Good instruction matters. But you know what else really matters? Having the chance to build relationships and talk with other people just like you. Today’s featured video highlights a group that has been offering this opportunity to the community for several years. Dr. Nancy Robinson and her students in the Communicative Disorders Clinic at San Francisco State University have been hosting a social opportunity group that brings together people who use AAC. Let’s take a peek into Conversation Club. Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1YzBsriqRU
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: Conversation, group, social, video
Better Hearing and Speech Month (#BHSM) is all about reaching out and advocating for access to communication supports. As professionals, advocacy is part of our core roles, though we generally struggle with finding the time to do as much as we’d like to. Few of us, however, have the opportunity to speak about behalf of AAC on the floor of the United States Senate. In today’s post, we share the recording of Rick Creech, lifelong user of AAC, speaking to the Special Committee on Aging. In the first part, we hear Rick’s prepared remarks to the Senate. Rick takes questions from the committee in the second video. Aging Without Community: The Consequences of Isolation and Loneliness Rick Answers Senators’ Questions
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: advocacy, public policy, video
There aren’t many formal assessment instruments designed expressly for people who need AAC, so it’s important to know about the ones that are available. In today’s post, we feature two videos on the Test of Aided Communication Symbol Performance (the TASP). Authored by Dr. Joan Bruno (creator of the Gateway programs for SGDs and AAC apps), this test helps us answer some of the questions we have when selecting or creating AAC systems for people with complex communication needs. In this first video, we get a brief overview of the TASP from Dr. Lori Geist. Next, let’s hear more about it from practicing clinicians and see a demonstration of some of the subtests. Do you use formal testing in your AAC assessments? We’d love to hear about those experiences.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: AAC assessment, formal tests, TASP, video
At school In clinics and hospitals At home In restaurants and shops People are supporting children with complex communication needs by speaking AAC and building opportunities for communication learning. Here are a few short videos showing what they’ve been up to. Vanderbilt’s Early Intervention Program are getting some communication in while playing and making music in preschool. Check out Shelane Nielsen and her handsome guy gooping it up in AACtion at home. Jill Baldessari explains how Miguel and his SLP get their eye gaze on. Take a peek at Deb using both prestored messages and single word vocabulary at a restaurant. Let’s see how these classmates are working together in their general education classroom. Ready for a bit of reading instruction, AAC style? Do you have videos of AACtual communication? We’d love to have you share them!
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: communication, Multimodal, video