There is a wealth of information and materials for you on our website, so you may be asking yourself, "Where in the world do I start?" No worries, we've got you! This is the first stop in your training! In this unit we will be answering some primary questions to get you started!
Our specialized training hub dedicated to supporting communication success in Early Intervention in the home and our preschool classrooms
AAC Partner Strategy Kits are engaging posters/handouts, descriptions and short videos explaining and modeling techniques for you to use to help your student be willing, and able to communicate using their AAC system!
5 steps to move from training to talking, give you a clear path for you and your student learner. Learning to communicate is a shared journey between the learner and their partners, and that makes sense! Communication is a shared activity between two people. It is the means for us to make connections, meet our needs, engage socially, participate in shared experiences, and bridge the gap between our experiences and sharing these their partners.
There are so many options for supporting a student’s communication skills that it can be confusing to know where to start. And it’s fair to say that all AAC devices, programs and equipment are not created equally. So how do we know we have given our student everything they need? Do we start out with very simple options and build, or do we provide more complex systems which can be simplified and taught?
Even though it is tempting to give students access to extremely simple communication options- such a a single message button to say “Hello” or a 3 button board to say “eat, drink and potty.” you will find, and research supports, that such simple supports not only do NOT meet a student’s needs to communicate, they don’t even encourage them to WANT to communicate.
Simple solutions may help students say what WE want them to say, but they rarely allow the student to say what THEY want to say. And that’s the point, isn’t it? Communication is about saying what we want to say, and true communication means telling someone something they don’t already know. Simplistic communication supports ARE part of the puzzle, ones that you will have readily available when needed, but only a very small part of true communication development, even for students who are just beginning to learn by watching us.
A single message button, simply won’t do.And so we need to explore more Robust AAC Solutions!
Here's a short explanation of the key features of a robust AAC system:
Overall, a robust AAC system aims to empower individuals with communication challenges by providing them with effective tools and strategies to express their thoughts, needs, and emotions, promoting independence and social interaction.
A robust AAC system is designed to facilitate effective communication for individuals with speech and language disabilities. An "effective" system is one in which the communicator can say anything they want to, to anyone at any time! Most often, a single button or a picture book just isn't enough. In this session we are discussing the key features of a robust AAC system and how you can ensure that your student has all of the language they need!
In the session we are going to be talking about what’s inside an AAC application, not which box we should pick! We’re taking a look at some of the most popular AAC apps and exploring the different ways they organize and present language to us.
On our AAC applications we have the choice of using single words for creative message generation and the use of complete phrases for quick communication. Generative language is the term we use to describe a person putting individual words together and adding word endings to say a novel sentence of their own. Pre-stored message are those messages, typically complete phrases or sentences, which require the person using AAC to simply access one button to speak an entire message.
This debate is has a lot of nuances which we will explore in our session. We are considering the question, is AAC more important for immediate participation in our environment or to allow our student to develop language skills to allow autonomous, unlimited communication over time, or do we need a little of both? (HINT: we need both!!)
Each of our robust communication systems has it's own way of organizing the words and messages on the different pages. In this training we are looking at each of the more common AAC applications and exploring how the words and messages are categorized so you can easily find them!
Electronic Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems with Dynamic Displays come in a wide variety of hardware options, with several different operating systems and a plethora of applications! These are the "high tech" systems you've heard of, typically offering thousands of words on hundreds of pages with many different means of organizing vocabulary.
A robust AAC system is designed to facilitate effective communication for individuals with speech and language disabilities. An "effective" system is one in which the communicator can say anything they want to, to anyone at any time! Most often, a single button or a picture book just isn't enough. In this session we are discussing the key features of a robust AAC system and how you can ensure that your student has all of the language they need!
In the session we are going to be talking about what’s inside an AAC application, not which box we should pick! We’re taking a look at some of the most popular AAC apps and exploring the different ways they organize and present language to us.
On our AAC applications we have the choice of using single words for creative message generation and the use of complete phrases for quick communication. Generative language is the term we use to describe a person putting individual words together and adding word endings to say a novel sentence of their own. Pre-stored message are those messages, typically complete phrases or sentences, which require the person using AAC to simply access one button to speak an entire message.
This debate is has a lot of nuances which we will explore in our session. We are considering the question, is AAC more important for immediate participation in our environment or to allow our student to develop language skills to allow autonomous, unlimited communication over time, or do we need a little of both? (HINT: we need both!!)
Everyone needs to be able to talk about their favorite people, places, topics and activities. Our students using AAC are no exception! Let's talk about why and how we give them access to these favorites!
Each of the AAC applications has it's own unique way to customize the buttons and pages. In this section we will give you links and resources to help you understand the nuances of the different AAC systems!
You’ve undoubtedly heard us talk about multi-modal communication, and today we are investigating the tools that makeup the variety of AAC methods we use to supplement or replace speech!
Our students need access to their communication system at all times, and there are often multiple partners who need to make changes. In this training we are ensuring the communication device is backed up and shared with all relevant team members!
In this training, we will review the development of the AAC Implementation Plan which includes details about the student's AAC system, customization and training to help the team successfully implement a new AAC system.