AAC in School-age

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Let's Talk AAC: AAC Intervention for Multicultural Families - Similarities & Differences Across Cultures

Join NWACS guest bloggers Wen-Hsin Ku and Hsiao-Ting Su as they discuss AAC intervention with a multi-cultural lens. This is the 2nd blog in our series on AAC collaboration.

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Let's Talk AAC: AAC and Team Collaboration

Join guest blogger, John Kim, and NWACS board member, Sarah Lee as they discuss team collaboration for AAC support.

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What to Expect When You Get Your AAC Device Home

Carrie Elliot, discusses expectations when getting your AAC device home.

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AAC and Transition Planning: It Starts Earlier Than You Think

Join NWACS board member, Cassandra, to talk about AAC transition planning throughout the lifespan.

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Comprehensive Literacy for All Book Collection with Barb Lark

NWACS board member, Kathy, interviews retired speech-language pathologist Barb Lark about a project she has been working on: the Comprehensive Literacy for All (CLFA) Book Collection

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AAC Starts with Mindset

NWACS board member, Cassandra, shares helpful mindsets for supporting AAC.

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The Communication Bill of Rights

The Communication Bill of Rights was our theme for 2022. The Communication Bill of Rights ensures the basic rights of people with disabilities to use communication to take part in managing their own lives. Check out these posts to explore each of the rights.

Communicative Competence

Communicative Competence is a group of skills that let a person communicate about anything to anyone. Check out these posts to explore each of these communicative competency areas.

 

A Crash Course on Getting An AAC Referral

NWACS Contributor Penny explores some pathways to getting a referral for an AAC evaluation.

What is AT, AAC, and SGD?

What are the relationships between Assistive Technology (AT), Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), and Speech Generating Devices (SGDs)? This infographic helps demonstrate those relationships.

Back to School Tips for AAC

NWACS guest blogger, Jo, gives some back-to-school tips on discussing AAC.

 
My Top 10 Reasons to Use Visual Supports

Guest blogger Beth, a speech/language pathologist and Director of Educational Programs for LessonPix writes about using visual supports.

Ways to Celebrate and Embed AAC in Classrooms

NWACS contributor Jacquie, a special education teacher, shares 11 types of actions you can take to celebrate and embed AAC in your classrooms!

Creating a Learner's Environment at Home

Parent to an AAC user, and NWACS contributor, Melissa shares 5 steps to creating an AAC learning environment at home.

 
Multimodal Communication: What Is It and Why Use It?

NWACS contributor Marci discusses multimodal communication and four areas to consider when thinking about a multimodal approach.

Let's Build Strong Support Systems

NWACS Contributor Casey shares her thoughts on communication independence versus communication autonomy.

AAC Devices Going From School to Home

NWACS contributor Marci shares information to consider when the IEP team is discussing if a school-owned AAC system should be allowed to go home with a student.

 

NWACS Board Member Kelly shares her thoughts about the book Inclusive Learning 365: Edtech Strategies for Every Day of the Year by Christopher Bugaj, Karen Jankowski, Mike Marotta, and Beth Poss (2021)

NWACS Board Member Casey shares some thoughts on teaming for AAC success. This is part three of a three-part series. Dear teams: let’s do better.

NWACS Board Member Casey shares some thoughts on teaming for AAC success. This is part two of a three-part series. Dear professionals: give the AAC learner the best possible chance of success.

 
Teaming for Success Part 1: Dear Parents and Guardians

NWACS Board Member Casey shares some thoughts on teaming for AAC success. This is part one of a three-part series. Dear parent/guardians: you are an important member of your child’s team!

NWACS Contributor Penny shares ideas on how to empower all the people within an AAC user’s support circle.

Becoming an Effective Communication Partner

NWACS Contributor Penny shares tips on how to become a more effective communication partner for the AAC user(s) in your life.

 
Goals for AAC Users & Supporters Part 3: Goals for AAC Supporters

NWACS Contributor Penny shares her thoughts about goals for AAC users and their supporters. Part 3 of a three-part series: goals for AAC supporters.

Goals for AAC Users and Supporters Part 2: Goals for Dynamic Systems

NWACS Contributor Penny shares her thoughts about goals for AAC users and their supporters. Part 2 of a three-part series: goals for dynamic systems.

Goals for AAC Users and Supporters Part 1: Goals for AAC Users

NWACS Contributor Penny shares her thoughts about goals for AAC users and their supporters. Part 1 of a three part series: goals for AAC users.

 
The Power of SNUG

Do you know what SNUG stands for?

AAC and Vision Impairment

NWACS blogger Marci shares information about hand under hand support for children with vision impairments.

What is a "Robust" Communication App?

Have you heard the term “robust” used when describing AAC apps? Read NWACS contributor Carrie’s thoughts on what “robust” means.

 
Dedicated Device - What's That?

Have you heard the term “dedicated device”? Read this blog to learn what it means!

Teaching Yes No

Why is answering yes or no to a yes/no question so challenging for some children? How do we teach this skill? NWACS Board Member Marci shares her thoughts on teaching children to answer yes/no questions.

Getting AAC in the Schools: Foundations

NWACS blog contributor Carrie shares information on the special education process in the schools and why it helps to understand it.

 
How Does AAC Help Kids Communicate?

Blog contributor Tanna explores ways in which she has seen AAC help kids communicate through a combination of success stories and tips.

District Core Vocabulary Initiative - How We Did It

NWACS Contributor Margaret shares about a core word initiative in her school district.

NWACS Contributor Kylee shares why the DAGG-2 is on her back-to-school agenda.

 
AAC Competencies and Goal Writing

NWACS Contributor Margaret writes about goal writing in AAC and the consideration of AAC competencies.

Video Modeling and Play Skills

NWACS Contributor Tina shares how she has been using video modeling in therapy with some of her students.

Rethinking Motivation and AAC Learner Engagement

NWACS Contributor Kylee shares some takeaways from a podcast she listened to regarding motivation and how it relates to our AAC learners.

 
Getting Started with Complex AAC Users

NWACS Contributor Margaret shares her first steps when getting started with students who have complex motor skills, complex communication needs, and are medically fragile.

AAC and Self-Advocacy

NWACS Board Member Casey shares information about why self-advocacy skills are a priority for all of her clients.

Using AAC: Scanning

What happens when an individual cannot isolate a finger to directly activate buttons to communicate? How will they access their AAC system? NWACS Contributor Margaret discusses types of scanning patterns for accessing AAC.

 

NWACS Contributor Margaret shares three things to consider when thinking about alternate access and AAC.

Aided Language Stimulation Outside the Classroom

NWACS Contributor Kylee shares three steps she has found to be convenient and simple when asking caregivers to provide aided language stimulation.

Letting Your Students Star in Your Presentation

Have you tried making interactive PowerPoint presentations using images of your language learners? NWACS Contributor Tina shares how she incorporates her students' pictures into her class interactive PowerPoint presentations.

 
Partner Assisted Scanning: Yes and No

Being able to communicate a yes/no response is critical to the success of Partner Assisted Scanning (PAS). NWACS Contributor Margaret explains why and shares some ideas on how to elicit yes/no.

Have you considered making interactive PowerPoint presentations to use with your language learners? NWACS Contributor Tina shares how she was inspired to start using PowerPoint to support language learning in the students she works with.

Partner Assisted Scanning

Have you heard of Partner Assisted Scanning (PAS)? NWACS Contributor Margaret shares some information about PAS.

 
Core in the Classroom

Have you been hearing the term Core Vocabulary lately? At all of the recent Assistive Tech conferences I’ve been to and websites I keep up with it’s been somewhat of a buzz word for the last few years! What exactly is Core? Why is it beneficial? 

Writing AAC Goals - Got Precepts?

As an AAC-SLP, I want to help every team member develop a basic understanding of what will help our shared AAC learner - of the breadth of knowledge and skills required for an AAC user to become a competent communicator. Here are my precepts to "live by" when developing AAC goals.